The Spruce Kings take on the Timberwolves for the fourth of five times in Williams Lake during the regular season. Prince George will be looking to leave a lasting impression on their Interior Division rivals as they won't play each other again until February 3rd. The Spruce Kings are coming off a come-from-behind victory over Williams Lake on Saturday night after a 6-3 win on home ice. The next day the Timberwolves had to limp back into their own barn to host the league leading Vernon Vipers and were shutout 6-0. That loss turned into the straw that cost the T'Wolves coach his job.
After suffering three losses, that started on Friday night, the Timberwolves ownership group made the decision to terminate Dave Dupas and give the head coaching duties to Jason Wright. The move has been viewed as a surprising one by some who believed that the Timberwolves were showing signs of coming on and proving the nay-sayers wrong about not being able to compete at the Junior 'A' level. Timberwolves general manager Geoff Murdoch claims that the team wasn't staying the course and that was what led to the changing of the bench bosses.
Meanwhile the Spruce Kings averted disaster themselves with that Saturday night win over the Timberwolves. The Spruce Kings had been failing to put away their opposition when they had late game leads and had come up with a less than stellar performance in a 4-1 loss to the Quesnel Millionaires. That all seemed to change on Friday night when the Spruce Kings put in a solid effort for a full sixty minutes and were able to capitalize on the few mistakes that the Vernon Vipers made. The league's best team still left with two points, but the Spruce Kings were left with a belief that they could have won that game had their been just a little bit of puck luck on their side.
That puck luck manifested itself on Saturday at the expense of the Timberwolves when the Spruce Kings pressed on a delayed penalty call and were able to get a shot through to the net that counted. Everybody in the building, except the referee, thought that the Timberwolves touched the puck at least twice before Bourke ultimately buried the game winning goal. That shot became a turn of fortunes and injected a shot of much needed confidence into the entire team.
The Spruce Kings will get two more boosts on the backend tonight as Wes McLeod and Josh Pineiro will both be back in the lineup. McLeod, who had missed a total of five games, is back from his all star performance at the World Junior A Challenge with a silver medal. Pineiro, who missed out the last four games with an undisclosed upper body injury, will also be back in the lineup and once again paired up with McLeod on the blue line. Unfortunately I don't expect to see either on the ice as much as they had previously. The intense travel and game schedule of the WJAC has caught up with Wes and he isn't feeling well. As for Josh, he has been practicing for the past two days but has been taking it easy and will be watching to make sure he doesn't reaggrivate his injury.
Perhaps the recent confidence boosters will help to keep the momentum moving upwards for the Spruce Kings with players like Brad Bourke and Joe Morgan getting the job done. Other players coming off great weekends include RJay Berra, Nick DeSousa, Zac Rasmussen, Jonathan Gibson and Jeff Earnest as well as the usuals like top line of Lyndon Martell, Brooks Robinson and Sam Muchalla. By the way, Kyle Nielsen will get the start tonight and affiliate player Bowman Rutledge will be the backup tonight with Steve Papciak nursing a minor injury. Papciak made the trip with the team and will be in the stands watching the game.
Game time tonight is 7:30 from the Cariboo Community Complex and can be heard live on 93.1 CFIS-FM as well as online from the Spruce Kings website by clicking on the CFIS-FM Listen Live link. The Spruce Kings will also be on the road Friday night in Quesnel to take on the Millionaires before returning home to host the Salmon Arm SIlverbacks in a matinee affair at the Prince George Coliseum Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm.
Rosters ...
Williams Lake Timberwolves
1 Sean Donnelly (G 5'11" 170 4/21/1990 White Rock, BC, CAN) (GP 9 G 0 A 1 Pts 1 00 PIMs)
3 Casey Fratkin (F 5'10" 165 6/5/1989 Burnaby, BC, CAN) (GP 13 G 0 A 1 Pts 1 24 PIMs)
4 Darren Tarasoff (D 6'01" 195 3/10/1990 Castlegar, BC, CAN) (GP 19 G 1 A 3 Pts 4 18 PIMs)
6 Riley Sweeney (D 5'11" 185 8/31/1992 Delta, BC, CAN) (GP 18 G 2 A 9 Pts 11 10 PIMs)
8 Dane Rupert (F 5'08" 170 4/16/1991 Kelowna, BC, CAN) (GP 18 G 5 A 4 Pts 9 08 PIMs)
11 Ryan Stanimir (F 6'00" 175 3/4/1990 West Vancouver, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 11 A 9 Pts 20 21 PIMs)
13 Laine Keyes (F 5'09" 170 4/13/1990 Chase, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 3 A 0 Pts 3 38 PIMs)
14 Kyle Leung (F 5'07" 165 3/5/1990 Port Coquitlam, BC, CAN) (GP 19 G 3 A 4 Pts 7 14 PIMs)
16 Anthony DeLong (F 6'00" 165 2/8/1991 Castlegar, BC, CAN) (GP 19 G 3 A 4 Pts 7 22 PIMs)
18 Justin Hogan (F 5'11" 185 8/28/1990 Val Therese, PQ, CAN) (GP 19 G 2 A 13 Pts 15 28 PIMs)
19 Cameron Hoffman (F 6'01" 185 7/1/1991 Lake Stevens, BC, CAN) (GP 9 G 3 A 1 Pts 4 25 PIMs)
20 Danny Merth (F 6'00" 190 4/19/1991 Anmore, BC, CAN) (GP 10 G 3 A 8 Pts 11 05 PIMs)
21 Keenan Bailey (F 6'00" 175 2/10/1991 Westbank, BC, CAN) (GP 14 G 0 A 3 Pts 3 17 PIMs)
22 Justin Bardarson (F 5'10" 190 6/6/1990 Burns Lake, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 6 A 6 Pts 12 41 PIMs)
23 Trent Murdoch (F 5'11" 155 7/31/1991 Nanaimo, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 7 A 12 Pts 19 04 PIMs)
24 Jake Harcoff (D 5'10" 185 10/17/1990 Surrey, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 2 A 3 Pts 5 17 PIMs)
26 Brendan Nadolny (D 6'02" 190 8/1/1990 Chilliwack, BC, CAN) (GP 5 G 2 A 2 Pts 4 04 PIMs)
27 Jason Diehl (F 6'02" 195 7/24/1989 San Diego, CA, USA) (GP 15 G 6 A 7 Pts 13 11 PIMs)
28 Kyle Beaulieu (D 6'03" 195 1/16/1991 Surrey, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 2 A 6 Pts 8 30 PIMs)
55 Evan Dauenhauer (G 5'11" 175 12/19/1989 Vernon, BC, CAN) (GP 7 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 5 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
3 Wes McLeod (D 6'02" 185 9/30/1990 Kamloops, BC, CAN) (GP 18 G 5 A 12 Pts 17 31 PIMs)
4 Clayton McEwan (D 6'00" 180 11/26/1991 Kelowna, BC, CAN) (GP 19 G 0 A 1 Pts 1 08 PIMs)
5 Justin Fillion (D 5'11" 175 4/23/1990 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 23 G 3 A 12 Pts 15 31 PIMs)
6 Tyler Miller (D 6'03" 210 1/1/1991 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 9 G 0 A 3 Pts 3 23 PIMs)
7 Jesse Scrimbit (D 6'01" 180 12/19/1990 Sicamous, BC, CAN) (GP 21 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 16 PIMs)
8 Jonathan Gibson (D 6'01" 205 2/1/1990 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 2 A 3 Pts 5 32 PIMs)
9 Nick DeSousa (F 6'00" 180 11/13/1990 Fraser Lake, BC, CAN) (GP 20 G 6 A 4 Pts 10 12 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 22 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 18 G 0 A 3 Pts 3 62 PIMs)
16 Jeff Earnest (F 5'10" 175 2/8/1991 Whittier, AK, USA) (GP 21 G 7 A 5 Pts 12 31 PIMs)
17 Brooks Robinson (F 5'11" 180 8/18/1989 Duncan, BC, CAN) (GP 23 G 8 A 25 Pts 33 18 PIMs)
19 Joe Morgan (F 5'08" 180 4/7/1989 Kitimat, BC, CAN) (GP 18 G 4 A 10 Pts 14 11 PIMs)
22 Jeremy Wiebe (F 6'00" 180 7/20/1991 Vernon, BC, CAN) (GP 19 G 1 A 1 Pts 2 63 PIMs)
23 RJay Berra (F 6'00" 180 7/26/1990 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 23 G 6 A 6 Pts 12 06 PIMs)
24 Josh Pineiro (D 5'10" 211 8/25/1989 Huntington Beach, CA, USA) (GP 17 G 5 A 11 Pts 16 25 PIMs)
25 Zac Rasmussen (F 5'09" 178 5/8/1989 Kamloops, BC, CAN) (GP 22 G 7 A 11 Pts 18 49 PIMs)
26 Sam Muchalla (F 5'08" 150 8/14/1990 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 21 G 10 A 19 Pts 29 30 PIMs)
30 Bowman Rutledge (G 5'09" 150 1/8/1993 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 0 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
35 Kyle Nielsen (G 5'10" 170 7/21/1990 New Westminster, BC, CAN) (GP 5 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
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