If the regular season was broken down into three periods, the Spruce Kings have made it out of the first period trailing on the score clock but very much in the game heading into the second period. Twenty games into the regular season and the Spruce Kings find themselves with 16 points with a record of 7-11-1-1 good for fifth place in the Interior Division. It is safe to say that nobody in the dressing room is happy being four games below .500 one third of the way into the regular season.
On the bright side, the Spruce Kings have been achieving success in many areas and are perhaps looking for a catalyst to change their current status. With one of the best penalty kill units in the BCHL among road teams, the Spruce Kings have been putting that stat to good use on home ice and improving their overall numbers as well. After having a stretch of three games where the powerplay was not clicking, the Spruce Kings finished the month of October with substantially better numbers on the man advantage situation.
Players have also been making their mark and have been receiving accolades for their contributions. Wes McLeod was selected to play for Team Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge, Jeff Earnest was offered a four year scholarship to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and Brooks Robinson was given BCHL Player of the Week honours for his play this past weekend.
Robinson has been quietly contributing to the Spruce Kings since game one and has been consistently in the top rankings among point getters in the league. This past weekend after scoring twice against the Quesnel Millionaires and setting up a total of four others in two games, Robinson moved into the top five with 31 points (8 goals, 23 assists) and has been averaging over 1.6 points a game.
A recent acquisition to the Spruce Kings has been proving to be a young stud at the Junior A level after leading the BC Major Midget league in scoring. Lyndon Martell has been seen flying on the ice at the Coliseum and has been averaging a point a game since joining the Spruce Kings ... oh and did I mention that he is just sixteen years old. Martell will be with his hometown team only for one season where the Kamloops Blazers, who own his major junior rights, hope he will become a more seasoned forward and able to make an immediate impact as a seventeen year old next year in Blazer town.
The game tonight is the fourth meeting between these two familiar foes, but there will be a few new names on the other side of the ice. Just today the Millionaires added 6' 5" 275 lbs forward Catlin Bigsnake. The Mills also added a big time scorer earlier in the week after completing a deal with the Burnaby Express that saw Jon Puskar traded to Quesnel in exchange for James Bettauer. However Puskar is not expected in the lineup at the Coliseum tonight ... Bigsnake is!
Game time is 7:00pm at the Prince George Coliseum with the game broadcast on 93.1 CFIS-FM and also online from the Spruce Kings website. To access the streaming audio, just click on the CFIS-FM Listen Live link on the left hand side of the Spruce Kings main page. Pay-per-view broadcast of the game is also available from the BCHL website.
Rosters ...
Quesnel Millionaires
1 Michael Smith (G 5'09" 170 4/19/1991 Spokane, WA, USA) (GP 0 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
3 Anderson White (D 6'04" 205 8/16/1991 Caledon, ON, CAN) (GP 6 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
5 Sam Higgins (D 5'10" 165 3/23/1990 Calgary, AB, CAN) (GP 18 G 0 A 8 Pts 8 21 PIMs)
6 Spencer Graboski (F 6'02" 170 1/6/1993 Quesnel, BC, CAN) (GP 15 G 3 A 3 Pts 6 04 PIMs)
7 Matthew Herskovitz (D 6'02" 200 12/3/1989 Montreal, PQ, CAN) (GP 20 G 3 A 5 Pts 8 10 PIMs)
8 Tyson Price (F 5'11" 178 8/18/1991 Slave Lake, BC, CAN) (GP 9 G 1 A 1 Pts 2 02 PIMs)
9 Brett Howe (F 5'11" 185 5/22/1990 Lethbridge, AB, CAN) (GP 19 G 1 A 3 Pts 4 40 PIMs)
10 Catlin Bigsnake (F 6'05" 275 3/17/1990 Sihsike, AB, CAN) (GP 0 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
14 Skyler Smutek (D 6'00" 175 5/7/1990 Seattle, WA, USA) (GP 20 G 2 A 7 Pts 9 35 PIMs)
16 Trevor Hertz (F 6'00" 189 10/11/1989 Jaffray, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 13 A 9 Pts 22 02 PIMs)
17 Taylor Holst (F 6'01" 185 4/24/1989 Kelowna, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 9 A 9 Pts 18 29 PIMs)
18 Erik Hansen (F 5'11" 175 10/10/1989 Minnetonka, MN, USA) (GP 20 G 3 A 6 Pts 9 04 PIMs)
20 Darick Ste-Marie (F 5'11" 195 9/19/1989 St-Bruno, PQ, CAN) (GP 20 G 5 A 10 Pts 15 20 PIMs)
21 Tyler French (F 5'07" 165 9/15/1990 Westside, BC, CAN) (GP 19 G 6 A 5 Pts 11 08 PIMs)
22 Mitch Galbraith (F 6'02" 183 4/21/1990 Quesnel, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 2 A 1 Pts 3 14 PIMs)
24 Brandon Watson (F 5'11" 173 2/24/1992 Keremeos, BC, CAN) (GP 9 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 25 PIMs)
26 Chris Kerr (F 6'00" 175 10/22/1992 Penticton, BC, CAN) (GP 15 G 1 A 0 Pts 1 00 PIMs)
27 Eliot Raibl (D 5'11" 184 3/28/1989 Vancouver, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 2 A 11 Pts 13 31 PIMs)
28 Tyler Billon (D 6'02" 190 7/18/1992 Chilliwack, BC, CAN) (GP 13 G 0 A 2 Pts 2 06 PIMs)
35 Luke Siemens (G 5'11" 165 11/6/1992 Delta, BC, CAN) (GP 6 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
Prince George Spruce Kings
1 Steve Papciak (G 5'11" 185 4/26/1990 Des Plaines, IL, USA) (GP 4 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
4 Clayton McEwan (D 6'00" 180 11/26/1991 Kelowna, BC, CAN) (GP 16 G 0 A 1 Pts 1 04 PIMs)
5 Justin Fillion (D 5'11" 175 4/23/1990 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 3 A 10 Pts 13 27 PIMs)
6 Tyler Miller (D 6'03" 210 1/24/1991 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 6 G 0 A 1 Pts 1 18 PIMs)
7 Jesse Scrimbit (D 6'01" 180 12/19/1990 Sicamous, BC, CAN) (GP 18 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 16 PIMs)
8 Jonathan Gibson (D 6'01" 205 2/1/1990 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 17 G 1 A 2 Pts 3 27 PIMs)
9 Nick DeSousa (F 6'00" 180 11/13/1990 Fraser Lake, BC, CAN) (GP 17 G 4 A 4 Pts 8 08 PIMs)
10 Brad Bourke (D 6'01" 175 4/21/1989 Onoway, AB, CAN) (GP 1 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 02 PIMs)
11 Kyle Manlow (F 5'10" 165 6/28/1991 Murrieta, CA, USA) (GP 19 G 3 A 0 Pts 3 10 PIMs)
14 Lyndon Martell (F 6'01" 190 1/13/1993 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 0 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
15 Luke Hannas (F 6'02" 185 9/9/1991 Williams Lake, BC, CAN) (GP 15 G 0 A 3 Pts 3 62 PIMs)
16 Jeff Earnest (F 5'10" 175 2/8/1991 Whittier, AK, USA) (GP 18 G 6 A 4 Pts 10 27 PIMs)
17 Brooks Robinson (F 5'11" 180 8/18/1989 Duncan, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 8 A 23 Pts 31 18 PIMs)
18 Colten Derickson (F 6'00" 200 11/15/1989 Westbank, BC, CAN) (GP 8 G 0 A 1 Pts 1 10 PIMs)
19 Joe Morgan (F 5'08" 180 4/7/1989 Kitimat, BC, CAN) (GP 15 G 4 A 7 Pts 11 11 PIMs)
22 Jeremy Wiebe (F 6'00" 180 7/20/1991 Vernon, BC, CAN) (GP 16 G 1 A 1 Pts 2 58 PIMs)
23 RJay Berra (F 6'00" 180 7/26/1990 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 5 A 6 Pts 11 06 PIMs)
25 Zac Rasmussen (F 5'09" 178 5/8/1989 Kamloops, BC, CAN) (GP 19 G 6 A 10 Pts 16 47 PIMs)
26 Sam Muchalla (F 5'08" 150 8/14/1990 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 18 G 9 A 17 Pts 26 28 PIMs)
35 Kyle Nielsen (G 5'10" 170 7/21/1990 New Westminster, BC, CAN) (GP 3 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
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