The Prince George Spruce Kings are BCHL champions.
At Vernon, Logan Neaton stopped 18 of 19 shots on Wednesday evening as Prince George beat Vernon 3-1 in Game 4 of the Fred Page Cup. The win earned the Spruce Kings a four-game sweep of the Vipers in the best-of-seven series.
It was the first BCHL championship for Prince George, which joined the league in 1996-97 after stints with the Peace Cariboo Junior Hockey League and Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League, both of which are long defunct.
More than 2,200 Vipers fans went home disappointed, but proud of their team for advancing to the league final.
“It was a great and exciting season! I’m a little sad that the vipers didn’t get to win the Royal Bank cup. They really deserved to win it all,” @Cheryl17074646 posted to Twitter, in response to another fan’s pride.
Nolan Welsh, Ben Poisson and Patrick Cozzi scored for Prince George, which led 1-0 after the first period and 2-0 after the second.
Teddy Wooding, at 12:42 of the second period to make it 2-1, replied for Vernon.
Aidan Porter turned aside 15 of 18 shots for the Vipers.
Prince George was 2-for-5 on the power play while Vernon was 1-for-3.
Prince George, which rolled through the playoffs with an impressive 16-1 record, will now play the Brooks Bandits of the AJHL in the Doyle Cup.
Normally, the series winner advances as the Pacific Region champion to the five-team event. However, with Brooks hosting the nationals this season, Prince George will receive an automatic bye in the championship tournament, May 11-19.
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