Express Roll Into Town

VS
3-10-0-1	Record	6-6-1-2
31 (15th)	Goals For	40 (13th)
64 (16th)	Goals Against	60 (17th)
16.39% (13th)	Power Play	16.92% (11th)
72.46 (16th)	Penalty Kill	79.03 (14th)

Venue: The Coliseum

Game Time: 7pm

Last Year’s Matchup: Prince George went 6-2-0-1 against Coquitlam

Season Series: First meeting between the two teams

Game Break Down:

Prince George hasn’t played many divisional games lately, but the next two weeks will feature games against only mainland teams. This week it’s a double headers against Coquitlam, and next week it’s Wenatchee coming to town. Coquitlam comes in struggling, having one win in their past five games. Two of those games were losses though. Despite having a -20 goals differential, the Express have had more games go past regulation than any other team. In six games they have gone beyond 60 minutes, where they have 3 wins, two losses, and a tie.

Prince George Home Record: 1-4-0-0

Spruce Kings Leading Scorer: Corey Hoffman – 4 Goals, 10 Assists – 10points

Coquitlam Road Record: 5-4-0-1

Express Leading Scorer: Jackson Cressey – 10 goals, 13 assitsts – 23 points (4^th in BCHL)

Player to watch:

Spruce Kings:

In his first eight games Braiden Epp had three points, but in his last six he has five points. The Prince George native was brilliant last year against Coquitlam, scoring 15 points in nine games. That included one five point game where he had a hat trick and two assists. Corey Hoffman is on the same path as Epp, with five points in his first eight games, and nine in his last six. Both players were shutout in the game against West Kelowna, and will look to get it going again against division rivals.

Express:

In the final game last year against Prince George, Taylor Green and Colton Kerfoot each had three points. Green is third in defensive scoring for the Express this season, but as a former Major Junior player, he can certainly explode on the scoreboard at any time as he showed in the final game last year against PG. Kerfoot is currently 9^th in league scoring, and with these games against Prince George being vital, look for the West Vancouver forward to play big.

In the Standings:

With a win, the Express could tie Chilliwack for 3^rd in the Mainland, with just a single point keeping them out of first place. All three teams currently ahead of them (Chilliwack, Langley, and  Wenatchee) will have games in hand following the game, so Coquitlam picking up some points this weekend would apply some pressure to those teams.

After beating Langley on Tuesday, Surrey moved out of the basement in the Mainland division, and left Prince George in their place. Surrey currently has a game in hand over the Spruce Kings, so the hometown team needs a big weekend against the Express. Coquitlam currently holds the 4^th, and final playoff spot, but even if Prince George sweeps this weekend they’ll still be four points back. That’s a lot better than the eight points they sit back now. This weekend is still early in the season, but could prove vital for the Spruce Kings going forward in the playoff hunt.

Special Teams Battle:

Neither team excels on special teams, but Coquitlam is two places better in the BCHL when it comes to both power play and penalty kill (difference on PP is 0.83%). While the Spruce Kings power play struggled out of the gate with just three goals in their first nine games, it has erupted as of late, going seven for 17 (41.18%) in their last five games.

Broadcast Info: For all games, you can listen to the action on Mixlr

 or watch live at BCHL FASTHockey