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Cousins endears himself to rest of Kings' clan

Kolton Cousins is making his Prince George Spruce Kings brothers happy. He was the ultimate family man Saturday in the BCHL pod in Chilliwack, scoring two goals to power the Kings to a 5-2 win over the Chilliwack Chiefs.

Kolton Cousins is making his Prince George Spruce Kings brothers happy.

He was the ultimate family man Saturday in the BCHL pod in Chilliwack, scoring two goals to power the Kings to a 5-2 win over the Chilliwack Chiefs.

With his first of the night, 5:29 into the second period, Cousins equaled his 49-game output from the 2019-20 season to give the Kings a 4-1 lead. Some solid forechecking from Vanderhoof native Linden Makow led to the goal. The Chiefs won a draw in their end but twice on the same shift Makow intercepted the puck and his backhand pass from just inside the line to Cousins sprung him into the clear and he fired in his third goal in three games.

Cousins added to the total with the Kings’ second shorthanded goal of the game 14:11 into the third period. Rowan Miller started the play in the Kings’ end and chipped the puck off the boards for Cousins, and the 18-year-old left winger from Sechelt did the rest, beating Mathieu Caron for his fourth goal in the past three games.

“It comes from a lot of hard work because he’s a tireless worker and doesn’t get nearly enough credit for the type of game he plays and kind of teammate he is, especially to our young players,” said Spruce Kings head coach Alex Evin. “It’s nice to see him, scoring around the net, he’s going to the net, he has a great little shot and it’s nice to see him use it.”

The win allowed the Spruce Kings (8-3-0-1-0) to leapfrog the Chiefs (8-5-0-0-0) back into first place in the three-team Chilliwack pod. The Kings are one point ahead with a game in hand over the Chiefs.

Coming off a 2-0 victory Thursday over Chilliwack, the Spruce Kings came to the rink ready and dominated the opening period, building a 2-0 lead while outshooting their opponents 16-3.

Christian Buono got them going with a power-play goal, launching a high shot into the short side of the net after receiving a cross-ice pass from Andrew Seaman.

A few minutes later the Kings penalty-killers got into the scoring act. Killian McGregor-Bennett broke into the Chiefs’ zone and dragged the puck wide around Chiefs’ defender Liam Tanner and fed it to Miller breaking through the slot. He skated the width of the crease and lifted a backhander over Caron for his third goal of the season. For McGregor-Bennett, a 2003-born rookie from Surrey, it was the first point of his BCHL career.

Defenceman Mason Waite drew assists on both first-period goals and was picked as the game’s second star.

“We had a good start and played fairly consistent,” said Evin. “We did a lot of little things well, we exited the puck clean, we made good decisions at the line, our tracking was good, we didn’t give them a lot of space and our special teams contributed hugely tonight.”

As good as they were on special teams in the opening period, the Kings always seemed a step quicker than their opponents playing five-on-five and they doubled their lead before the second period was 5 ½ minutes old.

Buono got on his horse on a left-wing rush and centred the puck for a streaking John Herrington, who won a footrace with Jackson Munro and was able to redirect Buono’s pass in under Caron’s blocker.

The Kings easily could have had a six-goal lead but Caron prevented that with his quick reflexes and long flexible reach. Corey Cunningham came close to his first of the season when he nailed the goalpost with a spinning shot at the end of a shift seven minutes into the period. Carter Cochrane jumped on the rebound but couldn’t beat a sprawling Caron from the side of the net.

The Chiefs finally solved Aaron Trotter with 1:04 left in the second, scoring on their second power play of the game. Kings defenceman Tanner Main was hobbled by a shot to the foot and was unable to get his body in front of Munro’s follow-up lobby from the face-off circle. The goal ended Trotter’s shutout string just shy of the 99-minute mark.

Ray Fust put a rebound in past Trotter ,right after Cousins scored his shorthanded goal.

The Kings went 1-for-2 on the power play while Chilliwack finished 2-for-3.

The shot count favoured the Kings 45-18.

They face the Merritt Centennials (2-9-0-0-0) Sunday at 5 p.m.