22 hours Ago By Ted Clarke
The Prince George Spruce Kings control their own destiny as far as making it into the BC Hockey League playoffs. With the 13 games left in the season the Spruce Kings are just three points behind the Langley Rivermen for eighth place in the Coastal Conference. All the Spruce Kings have to do to clinch that postseason berth is keep winning, just like they have been doing the past two weeks.
Prince George is on a four-game tear heading into this weekend’s critical matchup against the first-place Chilliwack Chiefs at Kopar Memorial Arena. The Spruce Kings haven’t won that many consecutive games since April 2021, when they put together a six-game streak during the pandemic pod season, when every game was played in front of empty stands at the Chilliwack Coliseum. The Kings’ hot streak continued last weekend on the road when they beat Cowichan Valley 5-2 and topped Nanaimo 3-2 in overtime.
That coincided with a Rivermen slump that’s produced just three points in their last six games, with just 11 games left in their schedule. “The message from the coaches and myself over the last few weeks here as we try to make a push to get into the playoffs is let’s just worry about what we control and worry about our own game and the players have done a really good job of focusing on that,” said Spruce Kings general manager Mike Hawes. “We can’t control what happens around us and we’re obviously going to need some help from the teams around us to get in.
But if we play well in the games and strive to get the points we need then hopefully the rest will take care of itself. “We’ve been competitive with every team in the league this year. This team is way better than the record shows and I think that’s starting to shine through a little bit right now, which is nice.
” If Spruce Kings fans haven’t been to rink lately they’ll notice one big change on the ice. There’s a new sheriff in town patrolling the Spruce Kings crease - Charles-Edward Gravel – and he’s been nothing short of phenomenal. He’s played four BCHL games – all of them wins - and has allowed just seven goals for sparkling 1.
69 goals-against average and .943 save percentage. Gravel, who signed Feb.
2 with the Kings, played in 211 QMJHL games over 4 1⁄2 seasons with the Blaineville-Broisbriand Armada, Baie-Comeau Drakkar and Saint John Sea Dogs and he had 99 wins and posted a 3.06 goals against average and .901 save percentage.
He also went four rounds deep into the playoffs last year with Baie-Comeau and finished with a 12-4-1 playoff record with a 2.37 GAA and .910 save rate.
On Monday the 20-year-old from Levis, Que., signed an NCAA commitment to Mercyhurst University. “He’s doing what we expected him to do, he’s a top-calibre goalie across the country,” said Hawes.
“We knew he was going to come in and give us a chance to win every game and he’s certainly done that and we’re looking forward to him doing that the rest of the way. “But it takes more than just a goalie and the players have stepped up. The whole group is getting confidence from having Charles in net and Charles is getting confident knowing the group in front of him is playing well.
“The team has done a good job of capitalizing on our chances and they’re scoring enough goals to win games but also defending extremely well and that’s very important this time of year when you’re playing playoff-style games late in the season.” The return of 20-year-old forwards Owen Goodbrand and Linden Makow from longterm injuries has also provided a spark. Goodbrand, who was unable to play this season until late January due to an undisclosed medical condition, notched both game-winners last weekend.
Makow collected points in five of the seven games he’s played since missing a month with a shoulder injury. Together, with Goodbrand at centre and Kazumo Sasaki on the left side, they form a potent scoring line. “When you’re out for that much of an extended time you almost have to use the first four of five games as your training camp to get back into a regular season mode and I think we’re seeing the finished result of that,” said Spruce Kings interim head coach Brad Tesink.
“Those guys had a chance to go through that process and now they’re up to what we expect of them.” This is the healthiest the Spruce Kings have been all season and they’ve had some practice time this week to work out some of the kinks on special teams. The power play especially took a serious hit when five of their top players jumped to QMJHL teams over the past couple months, taking advantage of the new NCAA eligibility rule that allows major junior players to play for U.
S. college teams as of next season. “It’s still a learning curve here with the guys that we lost through the process, to the sickness we dealt with last month and the lack of practice ,” said Tesink.
“From a PK standpoint we’ve done a very good job shutting down team’s weapons and from a power play standpoint I’ve seen a lot of good signs over the last couple weeks, they just haven’t found the back of the net.” Tesink took over behind the bench as interim head coach on Nov. 25 when Alex Evin was relieved of his duties and together with Taylor Harnett, hired as associate coach on Dec.
6, they are seeing the benefits of their efforts to turn the team around. “The guys have been working hard and the consistency’s there, guys have really bought into roles and responsibilities, just finding different ways to win games,” said Tesink. “We played four lines and six D (last weekend) and it didn’t matter which line was on the ice, they all looked like they were playing similar structure, everyone was bought in.
I could have probably mixed and matched the lines but at the end of the day it didn’t matter, everyone was bought in to the one-team mentality.” The Chiefs (27-9-5-0), coached by Brian Maloney, tend to score a lot of goals (averaging 4.56 per game through 41 games).
Only Sherwood Park and Trail score more often. The Chiefs do it by committee. Winger Mateo Mrsic, with 23 goals and 53 points, is their only BCHL top-25 scorer.
“They are a very opportunistic, high-octane offensive team,” said Tesink. “They like to play high-pace, high-scoring games and from our perspective it’s a nice clash for us because we like to play those low-scoring games. At the end of the day we feel like we have a good base to play them and if we play our game, to be successful.
” Friday’s game starts at 7 p.m., Saturday’s is at 6 p.
m..
