Six different Chilliwack Chiefs had goals Sunday night as the team beat the Prince George Spruce Kings at Prospera Centre.
Playing their third game in three nights against a road-weary visitor, the home team roared out to a 4-0 lead before popping it into cruise control.
The Chiefs sailed to their 35th victory (35-17-1-3) and now have just two regular season games remaining before the start of the BCHL playoffs.
Vincent Desharnais waited 53 games to score his first BCHL goal, so he probably didn’t care that it was a 12 on the 1-to-10 ugly goal scale.
No breakaway or top shelf rocket for the Quebec kid, who waded into a goal-mouth scrum early in period one to poke a loose puck past Jesse Jenks. PG’s stopper was livid, thinking he had the puck covered as he snow-angeled on his back.
Desharnais was all smiles after his greasy goal, skating to the Chilliwack bench to receive glove bumps from his teammates.
Craig Puffer, who’s scored a few more than Desharnais this year, doubled Chilliwack’s lead at 7:29..
Prince George defender Cole McCaskill lost his footing in the neutral zone, letting Puffer reel in a pass from Andrew Strelezki and blow past him. In alone on Jenks, Puffer tickled the twine with a glove-side snipe, netting his team-leading 28th of the year.
Kurt Black added to the lead at 5:57, wiring a shot over Jenks’ glove as he flew down the left wing.
That ended the goalie’s night, with Alex Brooks-Potts coming on in relief.
Chilliwack netminder David Jacobson didn’t have much to do in the opening frame, but he produced one eye-popping save. PG’s Chad Staley led a two-on-one rush, flanked by Jeremiah Luedtke. Staley made a pass across the goal-mouth, where Luedtke looked to have a tap in. But Jacobson got across in time, stretching his right leg out to thwart the Washington State native and keep PG at zero.
Jacobson’s Chiefs went up by four just 55 seconds into period two on a goal by Jake Hand.
Captain Eric Roberts got the assist, putting a shot on goal from the right point. With Rory Bell getting in Brooks-Potts’ face, the netminder didn’t track the puck as it slid right-to-left across the blue paint to Hand. The Ontario native had a two-foot putt into an empty cage for his 21st of the year.
The Spruce Kings got one back at 9:45, this one topping the Desharnais tally for sheer ugliness. As Chilliwack’s Mark Esposito decked PG’s Luedtke in the goal-mouth, Austin Grey’s centering pass went off him and in.
The Spruce Kings got another one at 12:15 when D-man Ryan Fritz put the puck over Jacobson’s glove on a hot shot from the high slot, but it took just 25 seconds for Jordan Kawaguchi to answer back. Skating onto a long flip pass from Puffer, Kawaguchi stepped past PG blueliner (and Chilliwack native) Brock Padgham on a solo rush, deked to the backhand and slid the puck inside the right goal post for his 27th.
Jake Larson restored Chilliwack’s four goal lead at 17:29 when his centering pass from the left-wing wall went off a Prince George defenceman and in.
The teams played a scoreless third period.
The three stars were Puffer (first), Black (second) and Desharnais (third).
The Fortis BC Energy Player of the Game was Bell.
Announced attendance was 2,954.
