Ben Poisson had a hat trick, Layton Ahac had a goal and two assists and Logan Neaton only had to make 13 saves to pick up his second shutout in three games as the Prince George Spruce Kings beat the Chilliwack Chiefs 8-0 to take a 3-0 lead in their second-round series.
Lucas Vanroboys got PG on the board less than four minutes into the first and the Spruce Kings rolled from there as they got three straight power-play goals, one from Ahac and two from Poisson, to take a 4-0 lead after one. Poisson capped off his hat trick with a tally at the 13:30 mark of the second and Nolan Welsh and Nick Bochen added on before the end of the frame to make it 7-0. Jay Keranen scored the lone third-period goal on a power play to make it an 8-0 final.
Patrick Cozzi added three assists for PG as they poured 45 shots on goal and went 5-for-10 with the man advantage. After his three-goal performance, Poisson, the Spruce Kings’ captain, is now tied for the playoff lead in goals with eight and is one back of the lead in points with 13.
Neaton sees his record improve to 7-1 and currently leads the BCHL playoffs in save percentage with a mark of .941 (minimum three games played) and goals-against average at 1.33. He’s also tied for the most shutouts with two. Chilliwack will look to stay alive in Game 4 tomorrow night from Prince George.
Kurtis Chapman stopped all 31 shots he faced and Kyle McGrath scored a pair of goals as the Victoria Grizzlies shut out the Powell River Kings 5-0 in Game 3 of their second-round series to take a 2-1 advantage. Grizzlies d-man Carter Berger started the scoring with 3:23 to go in the opening frame to give his team the 1-0 lead at the intermission. Victoria then struck with a pair of power-play goals to open things up in the second, the first from Cameron Thompson and the second from McGrath. Edward Yan then notched his first of the postseason late in the period to make it 4-0 heading into the third. McGrath scored again in the final frame to make it a 5-0 final. Grizzlies captain and league MVP Alex Newhook chipped in with a pair of assists to give him 13 playoff points, tying him with Poisson for second in the BCHL. Chapman, whose .933 regular-season save percentage was the third-highest all-time in a single BCHL season, sees his playoff save percentage rise to .922 and his goals-against average drop to 2.29, while picking up his second shutout, tying him for most in the postseason. Game 4 goes tomorrow night from Powell River.
