LATE RALLY NOT ENOUGH FOR EXPRESS VS. PG

Lawson Fenton did all he could to keep the Express in it - Photo courtesy of Damon James

A late third period rally made the final score close, but in reality the Express weren't good enough for the full 60 minutes falling to the Prince George Spruce Kings 4-3. Click here for boxscore

The Express have gotten off to slow starts in four of five games since the Christmas break. They have been able to dig themselves out of early holes, but tonight it came back to bite them.

Lawson Fenton was barraged with plenty of rubber in the first period and he did all he could to try and hold the Spruce Kings at bay. He was beaten by an Adam Brubacher blast that overpowered the glove of Fenton for a power play goal. Then following a won draw in the Express zone Tanner Campbell beat Fenton with a shot over his glove. Fenton was beaten twice on 11 first period shots, but it could have been worse were it not for Fenton considering the quality of chances for the Spruce Kings.

The Express didn't help themselves on special teams either. They had a two man advantage at the end of the first period that carried over to the second for over a minute, but were unable to even muster a shot.

For most of the night the Express were unable to generate much of an attack. It was a different story for Prince George. Corey Hoffman extended the Spruce Kings lead with the second of three Spruce Kings power play goals for a 3-0 second period lead.

Jack Surowiec - Photo courtesy of Damon James

After two periods the Express were limited to just 9 shots.

It took until the third period for the Express to finally try and claw back into the game. Owen Stout scored for a third straight game to get the Express on the board.

Then Prince George capped off a 3 for 7 night on the power play with Campbell's second of the game. The Spruce Kings also shut down the Express on all 5 of their man advantages.

Campbell's goal came just over 4 minutes remaining and it appeared the Spruce Kings were going to cruise to victory. But suddenly it was a one goal game after goals by Blake Hayward and Taylor Green 32 seconds apart.

Those goals made things interesting down the stretch and the Express did have their chances but it was too little too late and the Express couldn't complete the comeback.

Starting with their next game vs. Langley on Friday a better start and a 60 minute effort will be required after playing with fire with their slow starts in four of their last five games.