It has been a full sixteen days since the Spruce Kings played their last games of the season and the team is looking forward to getting back on the ice and back into the playoff race. At times through the course of the forty games already played, the Spruce Kings were sitting in fifth or sixth spot in the Interior Division. The extended layoff and an unfortunate string of heartbreaking losses, the team has watched themselves fall one point out of the final playoff spot.
With a game in hand on the team they trail, the Spruce Kings will start their final twenty games of the season against the Powell River Kings - the first of four in five nights against Coastal Division opponents. After the Kings, the Spruce Kings will come back to the Lower Mainland to face the Surrey Eagles (Wednesday), the Burnaby Express (Friday) and the Langley Chiefs (Saturday). With the race for a playoff spot of utmost importance, these four games are huge for Prince George to catch, pass and keep the Trail Smoke Eaters down.
The Powell River Kings on the other hand are looking to find the Coastal Conference bye currently sitting in second place with 52 points, 11 points back of the Alberni Valley Bulldogs with three games in hand. The Kings recently blostered their lineup acquiring Daniel Carr from the St. Albert Steel of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. Carr, who played with Wes McLeod on Team Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge, has already picked up three points in two games with his new team and is expected to be a major contributor through the stretch. Carr is the second player on the Kings' roster from that Canada West team, the other is Mat Bodie who was paired up with McLeod on the blue line.
The Spruce Kings have also made a personnel change that sees the team bring in Andrew Walsh, a second year veteran goaltender that was playing for the Langley Chiefs. Walsh has played in 26 games this season with a win loss record of 11 and 12; he has a 3.80 goals against average and a 83.33 save percentage with 2 shutouts. Walsh won't be in the Spruce Kings lineup but is expected to join the team and start in net on Wednesday night in Surrey.
The Powell River Kings have a pair of Prince George connections starting with Michael Gartieg in goal and Darcy Huisman on defence. Gartieg, a Prince George minor hockey product, has skated with the Spruce Kings during the team's training camp two years ago before being ap'ed and eventually signed by the Powell River Kings. Huisman is one of the last remaining ties to the silver medal finish for the Spruce Kings at the 2007 RBC Royal Bank Cup held in Prince George. The following season, Huisman went up to the Western Hockey League to play with the Kamloops Blazers and last year his junior A rights were dealt to Powell River in exchange for future considerations.
According to the numbers, the Powell River Kings are a more defensive team than the Spruce Kings but slightly less offensive. The Kings have averaged 3.10 goals for per game while giving up 2.50 goal against; comparatively speaking the Spruce Kings are 3.60 goals for and 4.40 against per game. Although Powell River`s road record is just .500 (9-9-1-3), their home record is one of the best at 14 wins, 2 losses, 0 ties and 2 overtime losses. The Spruce Kings will be looking to bring their road record back to .500 and above starting tonight after watching it drop to one game below during their last road trip.
Players to watch for the Powell River Kings include the newly acquired Daniel Carr (1-2), Andrew Petite (26-17) leads the team in scoring, chad Niddery (9-32) has proven to be the setup man and has four helpers in the past two games, Jordan Grant (22-19) along with rookie sniper Matt Garbowski (15-15) round out the team`s top three goal scorers. On the back end twenty year old Huisman (5-30) has proven to be a solid defenceman playing in key situations for the Kings. In goal the tandem of Gartieg (11-8-0) and Josh Watson (12-8-1) have been solid in goal while alternating starts for the team.
Players to watch for the Prince George Spruce Kings include the team`s points leader in Brooks Robinson (16-39) who is no stranger to the trip to Powell River and is making a return to the team that dealt him to Grande Prarie at last year`s trade deadline. Sam Muchalla (22-30) is currently riding an eight game points streak and is the team`s leading goal scorer. Nick DeSousa (18-7) has found an unbelievable prescence around the net in the last thirteen games averaging a point a game including 11 goals during that stretch. Wes McLeod (9-26) will be looking to shutdown his Canada West teammate tonight and keep his offensive numbers rolling while protecting his own end. Brad Bourke (5-16), Justin Fillion (5-25) and Josh Pineiro (7-17) will also be looked at to keep the puck out of the defensive end and move it quickly and effectively up the ice.
Game time tonight is at 7:30pm, a half hour later than originally scheduled to allow for fans a chance to watch the Canada vs USA World Junior game beforehand. Audio for the game can be heard on 93.1 CFIS-FM and also online from the Spruce Kings website (click the CFIS-FM listen live image) or from the CFIS-FM website beginning at 7:10pm. Those fans interested in watching the game online from Powell River can do so with a pay-per-view account from the BCHL website. Following the game the Spruce Kings will have to overnight in Powell River before taking the two ferry trip back to the Lower Mainland for Wednesday's game against the Surrey Eagles.
Rosters ...
Powell River Kings
1 Michael Garteig (G 6'01" 185 11/05/91 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 19 G 0 A 1 Pts 1 00 PIMs)
2 Reid Campbell (D 5'10" 185 2/04/89 Haines Junction, YK, CAN) (GP 33 G 8 A 11 Pts 19 52 PIMs)
7 Brenden Forbes (D 5'10" 165 12/15/92 Nanaimo, BC, CAN) (GP 39 G 2 A 1 Pts 3 41 PIMs)
8 Teagan Waugh (F 5'09" 170 4/16/92 Nanaimo, BC, CAN) (GP 2 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 02 PIMs)
9 Matt Garbowsky (F 5'10" 170 7/26/90 St. George, PQ, CAN) (GP 33 G 15 A 15 Pts 30 29 PIMs)
10 Andrew Pettitt (F 5'11" 180 10/22/90 Whitehorse, YK, CAN) (GP 39 G 26 A 17 Pts 43 37 PIMs)
11 Daniel Carr (F 6'00" 185 11/01/91 Leduc, AB, CAN) (GP 2 G 1 A 2 Pts 3 04 PIMs)
12 Jordan Grant (F 5'10" 180 8/17/90 Ladysmith, BC, CAN) (GP 38 G 22 A 19 Pts 41 49 PIMs)
14 Mitch Labreche (F 5'10" 175 5/03/90 Nelson, BC, CAN) (GP 40 G 6 A 14 Pts 20 20 PIMs)
15 Jason Yee (D 6'00" 175 7/17/90 Sidney, BC, CAN) (GP 34 G 1 A 7 Pts 8 30 PIMs)
16 Craig Eisenhut (F 5'11" 190 5/19/90 Kelowna, BC, CAN) (GP 28 G 2 A 4 Pts 6 37 PIMs)
17 Ben Schmidt (F 6'02" 195 3/17/89 Campbell River, BC, CAN) (GP 40 G 9 A 10 Pts 19 59 PIMs)
18 Brandon Formosa (F 6'00" 170 3/10/93 Mission, BC, CAN) (GP 35 G 2 A 2 Pts 4 12 PIMs)
20 Alex McDougall (D 6'00" 210 2/25/90 Whitehorse, YK, CAN) (GP 24 G 1 A 1 Pts 2 27 PIMs)
21 Chad Niddery (F 5'10" 165 10/05/90 Penticton, BC, CAN) (GP 36 G 9 A 32 Pts 41 27 PIMs)
22 Mat Bodie (D 6'00" 160 3/07/90 East St. Paul, MB, CAN) (GP 31 G 3 A 12 Pts 15 25 PIMs)
23 Carter Shinkaruk (F 5'10" 185 11/11/91 Langley, BC, CAN) (GP 37 G 4 A 7 Pts 11 18 PIMs)
24 Darcy Huisman (D 5'10" 175 3/15/89 Smithers, BC, CAN) (GP 40 G 5 A 30 Pts 35 21 PIMs)
25 Justin Dasilva (D 6'05" 215 5/22/90 Cambridge, MA, USA) (GP 30 G 2 A 7 Pts 9 45 PIMs)
35 Josh Watson (G 6'02" 180 9/07/90 Lititz, SK, CAN) (GP 21 G 0 A 1 Pts 1 00 PIMs)
44 Cody Rainaldi (F 6'00" 185 2/15/89 Hinton, AB, CAN) (GP 20 G 1 A 5 Pts 6 45 PIMs)
Prince George Spruce Kings
1 Steve Papciak (G 5'11" 185 4/26/90 Des Plaines, IL, USA) (GP 8 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
3 Wes McLeod (D 6'02" 185 9/30/90 Kamloops, BC, CAN) (GP 33 G 9 A 26 Pts 35 50 PIMs)
5 Justin Fillion (D 5'11" 175 4/23/90 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 40 G 5 A 25 Pts 30 60 PIMs)
7 Jesse Scrimbit (D 6'01" 180 12/19/90 Sicamous, BC, CAN) (GP 35 G 0 A 4 Pts 4 22 PIMs)
8 Jonathan Gibson (D 6'01" 205 2/01/90 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 37 G 4 A 5 Pts 9 41 PIMs)
9 Nick DeSousa (F 6'00" 180 11/13/90 Fraser Lake, BC, CAN) (GP 36 G 18 A 7 Pts 25 20 PIMs)
10 Brad Bourke (D 6'01" 175 4/21/89 Onoway, AB, CAN) (GP 37 G 5 A 16 Pts 21 40 PIMs)
11 Kyle Manlow (F 5'10" 165 6/28/91 Murrieta, CA, USA) (GP 39 G 5 A 2 Pts 7 12 PIMs)
12 Marcus Watson (F 6'03" 198 1/17/89 San Jose, CA, USA) (GP 36 G 12 A 21 Pts 33 32 PIMs)
14 Lyndon Martell (F 6'01" 190 1/13/93 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 24 G 9 A 11 Pts 20 06 PIMs)
16 Jeff Earnest (F 5'10" 175 2/08/91 Anchorage, AK, USA) (GP 32 G 8 A 8 Pts 16 48 PIMs)
17 Brooks Robinson (F 5'11" 180 8/18/89 Duncan, BC, CAN) (GP 40 G 16 A 39 Pts 55 20 PIMs)
19 Joe Morgan (F 5'08" 180 4/07/89 Kitimat, BC, CAN) (GP 31 G 8 A 22 Pts 30 20 PIMs)
20 Jeff Datoff (D 5'10" 160 5/26/92 Nanaimo, BC, CAN) (GP 27 G 0 A 1 Pts 1 07 PIMs)
21 Stewart Lambert (F 6'00" 175 4/05/90 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 21 G 1 A 1 Pts 2 04 PIMs)
23 RJay Berra (F 6'00" 180 7/26/90 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 40 G 8 A 10 Pts 18 13 PIMs)
24 Josh Pineiro (D 5'10" 211 8/25/89 Huntington Beach, CA, USA) (GP 34 G 7 A 17 Pts 24 32 PIMs)
25 Zac Rasmussen (F 5'09" 178 5/08/89 Kamloops, BC, CAN) (GP 36 G 13 A 19 Pts 32 79 PIMs)
26 Sam Muchalla (F 5'08" 150 8/14/90 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 38 G 22 A 30 Pts 52 42 PIMs)
35 Kyle Nielsen (G 5'10" 170 7/21/90 New Westminster, BC, CAN) (GP 17 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
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