Sunday, September 29, 2013

Game Day at Coquitlam Express

"We have a chance to make a good weekend, a great one." is just one of the things an obviously proud Spruce Kings General Manager said after another gutsy effort by the team resulted in the team's fourth come-from-behind victory of the season last night.

The Spruce Kings on the last leg of a three game weekend through the Mainland Division with the final stop being a return visit to the "Train Station" in Coquitlam. On Friday night the Spruce Kings started the weekend by erasing a 2-0 deficit, winning 3-2. Last night the team had to put a last minute goal in the first period and a disallowed goal in the second behind them to post a 2-1 regulation time win over the Chilliwack Chiefs.

In both games, third period heroics from the netminder seemingly fueled the players on the bench and provided the spark for those on the ice to complete the come backs. It was Jesse Jenks on Friday night making a number of key saves and then Alex Murray on Saturday night with the save of the season.

The Spruce Kings will now head back to the arena on Poirier Street in Coquitlam with confidence and a little swagger in their step, but what they are going to really need is to bring the same focus and determination that they had with them in the two previous games.

The Coquitlam Express were not impressed with the narrow loss on home ice and turned a day off into a working day as the team reconvened on Saturday for an extra session on the ice. They then did a little scoreboard watching as both Prince George and the Surrey Eagles posted wins to pull away. The only solice for the Express on last night's scoreboard was knowing that they maintained their position on the Chilliwack Chiefs and Langley Rivermen.

Of the five teams in the Mainland Division, only the Surrey Eagles (5-3-0-0) are off today as the other four play in rare Sunday games. The Langley Rivermen will complete a three game weekend themselves in Nanaimo against the 4-2-0-0 Clippers and the Chilliwack Chiefs (1-3-1-0) will host a Salmon Arm Silverbacks squad coming off a 4-2 win over the Victoria Grizzlies.

Turning a good weekend into a great one will take a lot more than just showing up with a pair of wins in your back pocket today as the Spruce Kings complete their first of many three game road weekends today at 2pm. The game broadcast will be available as a pay-per-view feed on Fasthockey.com with an option to listen live to the free online audio only broadcast from the Spruce Kings Mixlr channel.

Following the game, the team will make the ten hour trek home to start preparing for a pair of home games against the Vernon Vipers on Friday and the Victoria Grizziles on Saturday.

No comments: