Third-Period Barrage Stops Kings:

This is in todays Morning Star Newspaper:
Third-period barrage stops Kings

Published: November 27, 2009

The Prince George Spruce Kings hung with the Vernon Vipers for 40 minutes, but fell short in the final 20.

Trailing by a goal heading into the final frame, the Sprucies allowed three straight Viper goals to fall 6-2 before 2,000 B.C. Hockey League fans Thursday night at Wesbild Centre.

The Kings’ Nick DeSousa (12th goal) opened the scoring midway through the first period, assisted by Justin Fillion.

Kellen Jones equalized for Vernon when he created a neutral zone turnover and skated in alone to beat netminder Kyle Nielson (26 saves) with a nice backhand-forehand move.

First star Mike Collins (21st) collected the lone second-period marker early in the second period.

Viper d-man Dan Nycholat and the Kings’ Zac Rasmussen dropped the gloves in a second-period scrap, but neither combatant landed any serious blows.

Prince George (11-17-1-1) matched Vernon’s work ethic up until the third period, testing netminder Graeme Gordon with 25 shots, but Vernon found that extra gear to blow the game wide open, scoring three goals in less than three minutes midway through the final period.

“We actually had a good first period and got ourselves in the game. The bottom line from our perspective is we don’t have enough guys that want to compete on an every-day basis,” said Kings’ head coach Ed Dempsey. “Credit to them, they’re a good team and you see why. They play hard and they play simple and they pay attention to detail.

“They don’t panic...they stayed patient and know if they stick with it they’re going to start forcing some mistakes. They did that and capitalized on it.”

Robbie Short (12th) got Vernon (28-1) rolling with a wicked shorthanded one-timer from the faceoff dot, picking the top corner at 9:17.

A minute later, Patrick McGillis (6th) cut in on the left wing and threw a puck on net that bounced past Nielson far side.

90 seconds after that, Jonathan Milhouse (2A) set up Collins (22nd) with a gorgeous backdoor feed for an easy tap-in.

“They’re ranked No. 1 in Canada for a reason,” said Kings’ enforcer Jeremy Wiebe, a Vernon native. “I thought we were able to hang in there for the first two (periods), but in the third we had a couple breakdowns and they capitalized.”

Added Vipers’ captain Kevin Kraus: “We came out kind of flat...but we had an explosive third period which helped us out there.”

Lyndon Martell (7th), assisted by Brooks Robinson, completed the Kings’ attack.

Towering defenceman Nils-Erik Soderlund netted his first BCHL goal in the final minute to round out the Vipers’ attack.