Game 7 isn’t until Tuesday, but it seems the deck might be stacked against the Prince George Spruce Kings.
A pair of major penalties and game misconducts to Evan Bellamy and Carter Hesselgrave added insult to injury in a 4-2 loss to the Chilliwack Chiefs Sunday night in Game Six in front of 1,509 fans in the Fraser Valley.
The best-of-seven series is tied at 3-3.
Bellamy, one of the stalwarts on the Spruce Kings backend was handed a five-minute illegal check to the head penalty (and a game misconduct) while Hesselgrave, gave a baseball-style slash to Chiefs forward Milan Mrsic.
To make matters worse, leading scorer Tai Ushio exited the game in the third period and did not return after what was described as a headshot by play-by-play announcer Kyle Anderson from Chiefs forward Nico Grabas.
Grabas was only given an illegal check to the head minor and a 10-minute misconduct.
Up 2-1 heading into the third, Chilliwack struck twice in less than two minutes to extend the margin to a three-goal lead.
Markuss Sierazdkis accepted a Grabas feed and beat PG netminder Colin Reay. Then, Koby Francis buried his fourth of the post-season courtesy of Boris Borin putting the hosts firmly in the driver seat.
Ben Vreugdenhil notched two goals in defeat for the Spruce Kings. His first came at 14:21 of the second period cashing in on a mad scramble at the top of the blue paint, trickling the puck past Chiefs goaltender David Di Girolomo.
The 19-year-old’s second of the game came at 7:24 of the third period while on the man-advantage.
Jack Plandowski and Boris Borin lit the lamp early in the game to give Chilliwack a 2-0 edge.
The home team has won all six games in the series, with the Chiefs scoring the first goal in all of them.
In addition, the home team has won the last 19 head-to-head meetings between the two clubs dating back to the 2025 postseason.
PG will await the playing status of Hesselgrave and Bellamy from the BCHL’s Department of Player Safety. It is unclear if the Spruce Kings can send in the tape on the Grabas hit since a minor and a ten-minute misconduct were originally called.
Prince George outshot Chilliwack 33-32 but went 1-for-2 on the power-play while the Chiefs were 1-for-5.
Tickets for Tuesday’s Game 7 go on sale this morning (Monday) at 9:00.
Puck drop is at 7:00 from the Kopar Memorial Arena and will be the fourth game seven in the second-round of the Rogers BCHL Playoffs.
The winner of this series takes on either Cowichan or Nanaimo – there seventh game is slated for tonight (Monday) in Duncan.
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