As expected, Tim Zwiers of Williams Lake was given the start in net for the Prince George Spruce Kings and saw the majority of action in front of his crease. The younger lineup of the Spruce Kings held their own and had some chances at the other end as well. The Millionaires, with their older lineup and two game of preseason experience, found themselves with a few goal mouth scrambles that Zwiers and his defence were able to keep out of the Prince George goal.
The Millionaires opened the scoring at the 8:48 mark with a goal that was awarded to the defenceman, Matt Herskovitz. Helpers on the only goal of the opening twenty minutes went to a pair of returning Millionaires players, Thomas Kala and Mitch Galbraith. There was only one powerplay in the opening period and that went to the Millionaires when Justin Fillion got caught for a hooking penalty in the defensive zone.
There were also offsetting penalties at the beginning game as a result of a pair of players crossing the centre line during the pregame skate. Josh Garneau of Quesnel Millionaire and Stewart Lambert of the Prince George Spruce Kings were both caught with a foot over the line and that was enough for the officiating crew to institute the 10 misconduct call. By the way, just so you know when you are at the rink and see the faceoff moved to the defensive zone after a penalty call ... that is one of the new rules in place for the 2009-10 season in the BCHL.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Exhibition Game #1 - Pregame
The Prince George Spruce Kings are going with a much younger lineup for their first exhibition season game; meanwhile the Quesnel Millionaires come into the Coliseum with an already reduced player pool after their two earlier preseason games. The Millionaires will have a more experienced and noticeably older squad after pairing down their roster following a split on the weekend against the Williams Lake Timberwolves.
Tonight's game will not be broadcast on the radio due to scheduling conflicts, but there will be period by period summaries available here. Here is TONIGHT'S GAME ROSTER ... you will require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.
Tonight's game will not be broadcast on the radio due to scheduling conflicts, but there will be period by period summaries available here. Here is TONIGHT'S GAME ROSTER ... you will require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Intra Squad Game - Period Summaries
Third Period - The final period started quickly with a tilt featuring two players that were on the same team during the round robin scrimmages this weekend. Clayton McEwan of Kelowna and Jeremy Wiebe of Vernon traded a few in a no-decision battle that went on for a good 30 seconds and then some. Once play resumed, Team Blue stayed on task looking to mount a comeback but again came up empty on their sixteen shots on goal.Team White on the other hand just kept rolling and playing it safe and still managed to squeak in a lucky one at 16:39 when Dylan DeSousa of Fraser Lake kept slapping at the loose puck against the goal post and finally squeezed it past Cameron Large of Nanaimo. The only helper on the goal scored by Nick DeSousa's younger brother went to Travis Flaherty of Williams Lake.
Besides the offsetting fighting majors, there were five minors also handed out in the third period. Oliver Holt of Vernon was assessed a high sticking penalty at 1:26 for Team White. At 4:32 Adrian Moyls of Nelson from Team Blue got caught with the hooking infraction and Lambert was assessed a roughing minor in retaliation. At 8:30 Spencer Doduk of Mission put Team Blue down a man for the fourth time in the game with a roughing call and the final penalty of the game came at 10:42 when Colten Derickson from Team White got his stick up too high.
Following the game the players shook hands at centre ice knowing that this might be the last time they seem some of the other guys for awhile. The Spruce Kings coaching and scouting staff will start the process of pairing down the camp roster to approximately 30 players that will be carried into the exhibition season. Preseason play starts on Tuesday night with a game against the Quesnel Millionaires at 7:00pm in the Coliseum.
Second Period - Well this period definitely had a little more of everything including intensity. Team White picked up where they left off in the second half of the first period by continuing to get shots through. The victim would be Team Blue's second goaltender, Ryley Carter from Dawson Creek who was scored on a total of four times. Team White scored a pair of goals 36 seconds apart thanks in part to Stewart Lambert of Prince George.At 14:08 Lambert's shot found the back of the net after Colten Derickson and RJay Berra worked the give and go to gain the offensive zone, Berra then got the puck out to Lambert in front of the net who let go a quick one-timer. At 4:44 it was Lambert's turn to play the role of setup man after his shot on goal came back to the defenceman Jonathan Gibson of Prince George. The second assist on the goal went to sixteen year old Tyson Witala of Prince George.
Team White would take a 3-1 lead at the 8:25 mark with a goal from Jeremy Wiebe of Vernon who was able to knock in a rebound. Helpers on the third goal went to Chris Allbee of Prince George and Brady Fuller of Williams Lake. A series of penalties would follow including a chance with a two man advantage that Team Blue could not capitalize on.
Ryley Muise from Team Blue was first into the penalty box with a elbowing call at 9:34. Jesse Scrimbit from Team White followed less than two minutes later with a hooking call at 11:04. Tim Martens of Burns Lake joined his White team mate in the penalty box with a high sticking call. At 12:47, Dmetri Culker put Team Blue down a man with his holding the stick call.
Although no power play goals were scored, Team White did make it 4-1 just six seconds after Culker's penalty expired. Tyson Witala picked up his second point of the game with assists going to Scrimbit and Berra. Ryan Wilson from Grande Prairie turned aside all 14 shots he faced while in net for Team White. At the other end it wasn't as pleasant for Wilson who faced a total of nine shots.
First Period - Thirty nine players are in the Intra Squad game: three goaltenders, six defenceman and ten forwards on each team. From the view I have in the press box, it looked like the 35 plus players with no previous Junior A experience were tentative at best in getting started. Some good end to end rushes and chances by both squads. Just past the mid-way mark of the first period, Team Blue had a 6-4 shots on goal lead.The first goal of the game and the only one of the first period was the result of missed opportunity to get the puck deep by Team White that resulted in a turnover. Riley Muise of Tumbler Ridge fed Luke Hannas of Williams Lake who skated it in to the top of the right side faceoff circle and let an off-speed shot go that fooled Team White's starting goaltender, Evan Smith from Penticton.
The goal fired up the home bench who then started peppering Team Blue's starting goaltender, Tim Zwiers of Williams Lake. Zwiers was solid in net and turned aside all fifteen shots he faced during his tour of duty between the pipes. Under the pressure applied by the home team, Team Blue was only able to get one more shot on goal before the end of the period.
There was only one penalty called in the opening and that went to Team Blue. Tyson Young from Prince George drew a slashing call at 18:07.
Intra Squad Game - Roster
CLICK HERE to download the roster for the Spruce Kings annual Blue and White game.
Training Camp - Day Three
1:00pm - With the final buzzer of the game between Team Grey and Team White, so ends the scrimmage portion of the main camp. Team Grey finished the weekend with a 3 and 1 record after defeating Team White 4-3. Goal scorers for Team White were Tyson Witala, RJay Berra and Sam Muchalla. Team Grey got their goals from Nick DeSousa, Steven Powers and a pair from Brooks Robinson.
Now comes the prep time for the Intra Squad game which starts at 3:00pm. The game is open to the public for the admission price of a toonie. Roster is being finalized and will be posted shortly.
11:00am - First game of the day is a repeat appearance for Team Red and Team Blue from their first game on Friday where the blue squad defeated red 7-2. It was clear to see the improvement on both squads as the play was tight and it took a long to get the game's first goal. It was almost twelve minutes before Colten Derickson would open the scoring for Team Blue with a hard shot from the faceoff circle.
Joe Morgan made it 2-0 before Justin Fillion would reply for Team Red. In the second half, Team Red found their scoring touch for three in a row to take their first lead of the game. Fillion started with an unassisted tally after stripping the puck in the offensive zone then Fillion found Andrew Pickering open at the side of the net. One of my favourite goals was scored on a nice breakaway feed that started with a beauty pass out of the defensive zone. The recipient of the Chris Allbee pass was Oliver Holt who was in all alone from the nuetral zone and made a nice backhand fake to draw the goaltender off the far post.
At the end of the game, the players were seen filing into the Spruce Kings dressing room to meet with the real coaching staff. There is one more scrimmage to be played with Team White and Team Grey meeting one another again and then it will be the Intra Squad game at 3:00pm. Once the roster is finalized for the Blue White game, it will be posted here.
Now comes the prep time for the Intra Squad game which starts at 3:00pm. The game is open to the public for the admission price of a toonie. Roster is being finalized and will be posted shortly.
11:00am - First game of the day is a repeat appearance for Team Red and Team Blue from their first game on Friday where the blue squad defeated red 7-2. It was clear to see the improvement on both squads as the play was tight and it took a long to get the game's first goal. It was almost twelve minutes before Colten Derickson would open the scoring for Team Blue with a hard shot from the faceoff circle.
Joe Morgan made it 2-0 before Justin Fillion would reply for Team Red. In the second half, Team Red found their scoring touch for three in a row to take their first lead of the game. Fillion started with an unassisted tally after stripping the puck in the offensive zone then Fillion found Andrew Pickering open at the side of the net. One of my favourite goals was scored on a nice breakaway feed that started with a beauty pass out of the defensive zone. The recipient of the Chris Allbee pass was Oliver Holt who was in all alone from the nuetral zone and made a nice backhand fake to draw the goaltender off the far post.
At the end of the game, the players were seen filing into the Spruce Kings dressing room to meet with the real coaching staff. There is one more scrimmage to be played with Team White and Team Grey meeting one another again and then it will be the Intra Squad game at 3:00pm. Once the roster is finalized for the Blue White game, it will be posted here.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Training Camp - Day Two
11:00pm - The quick update to wrapup day two at the main camp is to let you know that there are no undefeated teams or teams looking for their first win. In the last game of the day, Team Red took on the camp leading Team Grey squad and found a way to end their winning ways with an impressive 11-3 victory. The big goal scorer in that game was Adam Baldassarre with a total of four goals.
In the earlier evening scrimmage, Team White improved to a 2-1 record with a 6-3 victory over Team Blue who dropped to a 1 and 2 record. Goal scorers for Team White were RJay Berra with three, Van Imoo, James Cannon and Tyson Witala. Colten Derickson, Jeff Datoff and Joe Morgan tallied for Team Blue.
Back to the late game and the goal scorers starting with Team Grey - Steven Powers picked up one and Brooks Robinson picked up their other two. Besides the four goals by Baldassarre, Team Red also got scoring production from Clayton McEwan, Adrian Moyls, Kalen Spoletini, Justin Fillion, Jeff Earnest and Jeremy Wiebe with a pair.
6:00pm - The fitness testing is done and the boys did pretty good. Mike Webber and Gibby Chasse of X-Condition put everybody through their paces with two passes at a 20 metre sprint, a 20 metre pro-agility test and the ever popular beep test also over a twenty metre distance.
Although there was no Usain Bolt on the track at Masich Place Stadium, the average across the board in the sprint was in the low 3 second mark. Scanning the numbers, the best run was Geoff Morgan at 2.78; but get this, both Morgan twins registered identical 2.81 times in their first run throughs. Geoff bested his brother Joe in the second run by a margin of 12/100th of a second. The other interesting thing to remember about the twins is that they aren't on the same team so they did the identical times an hour apart.
With only five minutes between the first and second sprint for each player, there isn't much time for the body to fully recover making the second run that much more difficult to improve upon. One player that did improve significantly the second time through was Andrew Pickering who shaved almost three tenths of a second off his first time - the best improvement out of anyone on the day.
The pro-agility test was a test of lateral explosion with quick stops and two reverses over the twenty metre testing strip. The players started as if in a sprinters block with their opposite hand on a pylon in front of them and then had to explode sprinting either to their left or to their right, braking and touching a pylon before reversing to sprint the full 20 metres to the opposite pylon and then back again through the starting point.
The average for this test was in the mid eight second mark with only two players doing better than eight seconds. Sam Muchalla won this event with a time of 7.90 followed by Joe Morgan with a mark of 7.97. Wes McLeod finished third with an identical time of 8.00 in both directions. From my perspective, footwear was a contributing factor in this event with the explosive starts, quick stops and the reverse explosions on the cork track saw a few guys lose their grip and resulted in a few blowouts.
Truth be told, I have never done the beep test and have no idea where I would finish in this gruelling test that requires the athlete to pace themselves through ever increasing time intervals. It starts out at a bit better than a walking pace over a 20 metre distance with timed beeps indicated when the athlete has to reverse direction. If a runner fails to reach the pylon for the turn twice in a row, the runner is done and will register a score based on the level they completed successfully.
In the beep test it seems that getting inside level 10 is the bench mark as this is when it starts getting tougher to pace yourself so that there isn't much of a wait time at either end of the 20 metre expanse. The majority of players were done before reaching level 11 and the early benchmark was level 13-7 set by Andrew Pickering. Only three players could best that mark with Chris Solecki and Jesse Scrimbit reaching level 14-0 and Evan Smith reaching level 13-13. By the way, Solecki and Smith are both goaltenders, which maybe doesn't come as much of a surprise as this position requires players to be able to match the tempo of the game for the full sixty minutes without the benefit of a line change.
1:30pm - Second scrimmage of the morning is now done putting four games into the books at the 2009-10 Spruce Kings main camp. This game featured Team Grey and Team Blue who were both 1 and 0 heading in. After the sixty minutes were up it is Team Grey that came out on top with an 8-3 victory to improve to 2 and 0 record.
Team Grey opened the scoring and never looked back with period leads of 3-1, 6-2 and of course 8-3. Leading the way again in this game was Nick DeSousa with a pair of goals and a pair of helpers. Rounding out the scoring for Team Grey was Dylan DeSousa, Brooks Robinson, Steven Powers, Tyson Hall, Luke Hannas and Geoff Morgan. Team Blue got scoring from Josh Pineiro, Nick Beisher and Joe Morgan.
While I did miss most of this game, listening to the scouts afterwards it sounds like Brooks Robinson scored the highlight goal of the game. After picking up the puck at the top of the defensive zone, Robinson skated through a couple of stick checks and then split the 'D' before beating Team Blue's first goaltender of the game. The line of Robinson, Hall and DeSousa have been causing the most amount of grief for the opposition and Team Red will have to shut down that line later tonight if they want any chance of picking up their first win.
11:15am - The third game scrimmage of the main camp was what I expected as far as intensity and competiitiveness, but unfortunately for Team Red, they suffered the same fate as their first game. They looked good early on and were controlling the game well pressuring the 'D' and getting shots towards the net, but it would be Team White that would open the scoring.
The first goal of the game was the result of some good pressure by the Team White forwards to cause a turnover and then, with traffic in front of the net, slip one through. Team Red did not quit and would score the next three goals to take a 3-1 lead as result of their good puck movement and shots on goal. After giving up those three in a row, Team White would get three of their own to put Team Red down by one again.
The go ahead goal was the result of some excellent puck movement while on the powerplay and then a bullet shot from the high slot by returning defenceman, Wes McLeod. Yes it is true, McLeod will be on the Spruce Kings roster for the 2009-10 seasaon. McLeod sees this year as the best opportunity for him to get ice time and develop more as a solid defenceman. On a side note, I will have his story on the Spruce Kings website, but it will have to wait unilt after camp wraps up.
Back to the game, Team Red would tie it up once more with a quick powerplay goal of their own before the end of the second period. The knife in the side of Team White would come just twelve seconds later and then they would add another early in the third and never looked back.
Goal scorers for Team Red were Kalen Spoletini and Jeff Earnest, Adam Baldassarre scored the power play marker and Andrew Pickering tallied a pair. For Team White, RJay Berra opened the scoring and would add three more including the game winner and insurance marker. As mentioned earlier, Wes McLeod scored that beauty on the powerplay and added one other while Jordan Wood and Sam Muchalla would add singles.
Both teams will now get ready for their fitness testing at Masich Place Stadium beginning at 1:30 with Team Red followed by Team White at 2:30. Team Grey and Team Blue will follow, but right now they are on the ice in the fourth game scrimmage of the camp.
8:30am - The Coliseum is coming alive again for the second day of training camp. Today will feature a total of four scrimmages (two for each team) and fitness testing. With the first day jitters and travel legs out of the way, today should produce a little more intensity and maybe bring out some more competitive rivalry. I will be behind the bench with Adrien Chabot once again for Team Red in the first game of the day at 9:00am.
In the earlier evening scrimmage, Team White improved to a 2-1 record with a 6-3 victory over Team Blue who dropped to a 1 and 2 record. Goal scorers for Team White were RJay Berra with three, Van Imoo, James Cannon and Tyson Witala. Colten Derickson, Jeff Datoff and Joe Morgan tallied for Team Blue.
Back to the late game and the goal scorers starting with Team Grey - Steven Powers picked up one and Brooks Robinson picked up their other two. Besides the four goals by Baldassarre, Team Red also got scoring production from Clayton McEwan, Adrian Moyls, Kalen Spoletini, Justin Fillion, Jeff Earnest and Jeremy Wiebe with a pair.
6:00pm - The fitness testing is done and the boys did pretty good. Mike Webber and Gibby Chasse of X-Condition put everybody through their paces with two passes at a 20 metre sprint, a 20 metre pro-agility test and the ever popular beep test also over a twenty metre distance.
Although there was no Usain Bolt on the track at Masich Place Stadium, the average across the board in the sprint was in the low 3 second mark. Scanning the numbers, the best run was Geoff Morgan at 2.78; but get this, both Morgan twins registered identical 2.81 times in their first run throughs. Geoff bested his brother Joe in the second run by a margin of 12/100th of a second. The other interesting thing to remember about the twins is that they aren't on the same team so they did the identical times an hour apart.
With only five minutes between the first and second sprint for each player, there isn't much time for the body to fully recover making the second run that much more difficult to improve upon. One player that did improve significantly the second time through was Andrew Pickering who shaved almost three tenths of a second off his first time - the best improvement out of anyone on the day.
The pro-agility test was a test of lateral explosion with quick stops and two reverses over the twenty metre testing strip. The players started as if in a sprinters block with their opposite hand on a pylon in front of them and then had to explode sprinting either to their left or to their right, braking and touching a pylon before reversing to sprint the full 20 metres to the opposite pylon and then back again through the starting point.
The average for this test was in the mid eight second mark with only two players doing better than eight seconds. Sam Muchalla won this event with a time of 7.90 followed by Joe Morgan with a mark of 7.97. Wes McLeod finished third with an identical time of 8.00 in both directions. From my perspective, footwear was a contributing factor in this event with the explosive starts, quick stops and the reverse explosions on the cork track saw a few guys lose their grip and resulted in a few blowouts.
Truth be told, I have never done the beep test and have no idea where I would finish in this gruelling test that requires the athlete to pace themselves through ever increasing time intervals. It starts out at a bit better than a walking pace over a 20 metre distance with timed beeps indicated when the athlete has to reverse direction. If a runner fails to reach the pylon for the turn twice in a row, the runner is done and will register a score based on the level they completed successfully.
In the beep test it seems that getting inside level 10 is the bench mark as this is when it starts getting tougher to pace yourself so that there isn't much of a wait time at either end of the 20 metre expanse. The majority of players were done before reaching level 11 and the early benchmark was level 13-7 set by Andrew Pickering. Only three players could best that mark with Chris Solecki and Jesse Scrimbit reaching level 14-0 and Evan Smith reaching level 13-13. By the way, Solecki and Smith are both goaltenders, which maybe doesn't come as much of a surprise as this position requires players to be able to match the tempo of the game for the full sixty minutes without the benefit of a line change.
1:30pm - Second scrimmage of the morning is now done putting four games into the books at the 2009-10 Spruce Kings main camp. This game featured Team Grey and Team Blue who were both 1 and 0 heading in. After the sixty minutes were up it is Team Grey that came out on top with an 8-3 victory to improve to 2 and 0 record.
Team Grey opened the scoring and never looked back with period leads of 3-1, 6-2 and of course 8-3. Leading the way again in this game was Nick DeSousa with a pair of goals and a pair of helpers. Rounding out the scoring for Team Grey was Dylan DeSousa, Brooks Robinson, Steven Powers, Tyson Hall, Luke Hannas and Geoff Morgan. Team Blue got scoring from Josh Pineiro, Nick Beisher and Joe Morgan.
While I did miss most of this game, listening to the scouts afterwards it sounds like Brooks Robinson scored the highlight goal of the game. After picking up the puck at the top of the defensive zone, Robinson skated through a couple of stick checks and then split the 'D' before beating Team Blue's first goaltender of the game. The line of Robinson, Hall and DeSousa have been causing the most amount of grief for the opposition and Team Red will have to shut down that line later tonight if they want any chance of picking up their first win.
11:15am - The third game scrimmage of the main camp was what I expected as far as intensity and competiitiveness, but unfortunately for Team Red, they suffered the same fate as their first game. They looked good early on and were controlling the game well pressuring the 'D' and getting shots towards the net, but it would be Team White that would open the scoring.
The first goal of the game was the result of some good pressure by the Team White forwards to cause a turnover and then, with traffic in front of the net, slip one through. Team Red did not quit and would score the next three goals to take a 3-1 lead as result of their good puck movement and shots on goal. After giving up those three in a row, Team White would get three of their own to put Team Red down by one again.
The go ahead goal was the result of some excellent puck movement while on the powerplay and then a bullet shot from the high slot by returning defenceman, Wes McLeod. Yes it is true, McLeod will be on the Spruce Kings roster for the 2009-10 seasaon. McLeod sees this year as the best opportunity for him to get ice time and develop more as a solid defenceman. On a side note, I will have his story on the Spruce Kings website, but it will have to wait unilt after camp wraps up.
Back to the game, Team Red would tie it up once more with a quick powerplay goal of their own before the end of the second period. The knife in the side of Team White would come just twelve seconds later and then they would add another early in the third and never looked back.
Goal scorers for Team Red were Kalen Spoletini and Jeff Earnest, Adam Baldassarre scored the power play marker and Andrew Pickering tallied a pair. For Team White, RJay Berra opened the scoring and would add three more including the game winner and insurance marker. As mentioned earlier, Wes McLeod scored that beauty on the powerplay and added one other while Jordan Wood and Sam Muchalla would add singles.
Both teams will now get ready for their fitness testing at Masich Place Stadium beginning at 1:30 with Team Red followed by Team White at 2:30. Team Grey and Team Blue will follow, but right now they are on the ice in the fourth game scrimmage of the camp.
8:30am - The Coliseum is coming alive again for the second day of training camp. Today will feature a total of four scrimmages (two for each team) and fitness testing. With the first day jitters and travel legs out of the way, today should produce a little more intensity and maybe bring out some more competitive rivalry. I will be behind the bench with Adrien Chabot once again for Team Red in the first game of the day at 9:00am.
Showdown in the Bulkley Valley
written by Evelyn Oosterhoff
Nestled between the Hudson Bay Mountain and the Babine Mountain range, in the beautiful Bulkley Valley, is the community of Smithers, population of approximately 6000. Smithers is a great place to visit if you are interested in fishing, hunting, skiing (downhill or cross-country), hiking or just relax and wandering down the Bavarian-style Main Street. It is also a hockey town, and I mean big time hockey town!
The arena has been a hub of activity every winter for a very long time, with all ages enjoying hockey games, either as part of a team or as a spectator! The Smithers Civic Centre was originally constructed as an airplane hangar in Terrace, B.C. in 1943. It was purchased by a community group from Smithers in 1954, and underwent some changes and upgrades to make it a viable arena. The most recent update to the arena is a new scoreclock. That took place just this year. I am sure that it is a welcome addition to the arena. The seating in the arena may have changed since the last time I was in there, but I'm told it still has seating for well over 500 people. People who have watched the likes of last year's captain - Zach Davies and current NHLer - Dan Hamhuis and many others develop and hone their amazing hockey skills! Hammy spent countless hours working on those defensive skills that gave him a ticket into the NHL.
I am so happy knowing I am going to be one of the spectators in attendance on September 2nd as our Prince George Spruce Kings challenge their Hwy 97 South rivals, the Quesnel Millionaires in the second half of a preseason home-and-home series. It will be the Millionaires that will be given the title of home team for this night in the town located four hours west of Prince George on Hwy 16. That's right! Smithers is the fortunate town to host this exciting matchup between the two teams who know each other very well and sometimes it is proven by the number of players in the penalty box, to the delight of some fans and the chagrin of others. All that aside, this is going to be a great time for all who attend and there will be a lot of talk about in the coffee shops (like Schimmels and Tim Hortons) and in offices about this game and who is going to win! I am also sure that there will be a lot of talk for days afterwards too.
If you would like to attend this matchup in downtown Smithers make sure you gas up your vehicle, put on some good music and enjoy the scenic 370 km drive down Hwy 16. Once you arrive in Smithers just drive through the town until you get to Manitoba Street on your left side (if you look to the right you will see A&W). Turn left on Manitoba Street and then turn right on 3rd Avenue and you will see the arena to your right. Park the truck, get the noisemakers out, head inside and be ready to cheer on our Spruce Kings.
I am excited to see the guys on the ice again for another season! Here's to another fun and entertaining year of hockey. See you in the arena! We have a seat for YOU in the Coliseum!
Evelyn (Host Services and loyal Spruce Kings fan)
This blog was written by Evelyn Oosterhoff, a member of the Spruce Kings volunteer team and a self proclaimed loyal Spruce Kings fan. If you would be interested in having your thoughts posted on the Spruce Kings blog site, be sure to send me an email or just post a comment to this posting and I will help you get yours posted here too - Ron.
Nestled between the Hudson Bay Mountain and the Babine Mountain range, in the beautiful Bulkley Valley, is the community of Smithers, population of approximately 6000. Smithers is a great place to visit if you are interested in fishing, hunting, skiing (downhill or cross-country), hiking or just relax and wandering down the Bavarian-style Main Street. It is also a hockey town, and I mean big time hockey town!
The arena has been a hub of activity every winter for a very long time, with all ages enjoying hockey games, either as part of a team or as a spectator! The Smithers Civic Centre was originally constructed as an airplane hangar in Terrace, B.C. in 1943. It was purchased by a community group from Smithers in 1954, and underwent some changes and upgrades to make it a viable arena. The most recent update to the arena is a new scoreclock. That took place just this year. I am sure that it is a welcome addition to the arena. The seating in the arena may have changed since the last time I was in there, but I'm told it still has seating for well over 500 people. People who have watched the likes of last year's captain - Zach Davies and current NHLer - Dan Hamhuis and many others develop and hone their amazing hockey skills! Hammy spent countless hours working on those defensive skills that gave him a ticket into the NHL.
I am so happy knowing I am going to be one of the spectators in attendance on September 2nd as our Prince George Spruce Kings challenge their Hwy 97 South rivals, the Quesnel Millionaires in the second half of a preseason home-and-home series. It will be the Millionaires that will be given the title of home team for this night in the town located four hours west of Prince George on Hwy 16. That's right! Smithers is the fortunate town to host this exciting matchup between the two teams who know each other very well and sometimes it is proven by the number of players in the penalty box, to the delight of some fans and the chagrin of others. All that aside, this is going to be a great time for all who attend and there will be a lot of talk about in the coffee shops (like Schimmels and Tim Hortons) and in offices about this game and who is going to win! I am also sure that there will be a lot of talk for days afterwards too.
If you would like to attend this matchup in downtown Smithers make sure you gas up your vehicle, put on some good music and enjoy the scenic 370 km drive down Hwy 16. Once you arrive in Smithers just drive through the town until you get to Manitoba Street on your left side (if you look to the right you will see A&W). Turn left on Manitoba Street and then turn right on 3rd Avenue and you will see the arena to your right. Park the truck, get the noisemakers out, head inside and be ready to cheer on our Spruce Kings.
I am excited to see the guys on the ice again for another season! Here's to another fun and entertaining year of hockey. See you in the arena! We have a seat for YOU in the Coliseum!
Evelyn (Host Services and loyal Spruce Kings fan)
This blog was written by Evelyn Oosterhoff, a member of the Spruce Kings volunteer team and a self proclaimed loyal Spruce Kings fan. If you would be interested in having your thoughts posted on the Spruce Kings blog site, be sure to send me an email or just post a comment to this posting and I will help you get yours posted here too - Ron.
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