Saturday, January 16, 2010

Game 46 - vs Quesnel Millionaires

Well if you want a story line or two ... you have them with tonight's game. For the tenth time this season the Spruce Kings will faceoff against the Quesnel Millionaires as the CNC Challenge Cup series will come to an end with what really comes down to a winner-takes-all nail-biter. With the 6-4 win last night in Quesnel, the Spruce Kings have a slim 10-9 lead over the Millionaires for points towards the CNC Challenge Cup.

The other story line comes as a result of some late game antics in last night's game played in the Vault in Quesnel. After Zac Rasmussen added an insurance marker with just over five minutes remaining in the third and the Spruce Kings held the Millionaires without anymore really scoring chances, the first signs of frustration starting coming through.

After scoring two goals for the Millionaires, Joshua Desmarais was noticeably fiesty and after jawing with Rasmussen, took some frustrations out with a two-handed slash on the back of Stewart Lambert's legs. Luke Hannas held Desmarais accountable for his actions and the two dropped the gloves in a spirited tilt that saw Desmarais go down hard to the ice. With the Millionaires already shorthanded, the slashing penalty gave Prince George a two man advantage with less than twenty seconds remaining in the game.

Off the next faceoff, Mitch Galbraith went to straight out to the right point to challenge Justin Fillion while the puck was deep in the right corner. Fillion chose not to engage Galbraith and instead tried to duck out of the way with the bigger Galbraith still trying to get to him. Brad Bourke then came in and engaged Galbraith followed by Rylan Stanyer of Quesnel and Kyle Manlow of PG while Stewart Lambert had his hands full with Anderson White. Justin Fillion and Max Mois were left on the ice to survey the situation.

The referee allowed time to expiry giving the Spruce Kings their 6-4 victory, but the game was far from over as the penalties had to be sorted out. After the dust settled there was an instigator penalty to Galbraith, a high sticking call to Stanyer and fighting majors to those on the ice as well as game misconducts. After reviewing the game tape, the league executive handed down their punishments suspending a total of six players for tonight's rematch. Gone for Prince George is Brad Bourke, Kyle Manlow and Stewart Lambert while the Millionaires will be without Mitch Galbraith, Rylan Stanyer and Anderson White.

All that aside, this will be an interesting game as the Spruce Kings already have two APs in the lineup with Max Mois and Jordan Cool. The two youngters looked good last night and Cool actually scored the game winning goal in the second period as a result of a nice three-way passing play with Nick DeSousa feeding RJay Berra on the right side and Berra spotting and finding Cool on the left wing. Cool saw the opening and buried his first in the BCHL at 9:37 of the second.

The win brought the Spruce Kings to within four points of the Quesnel Millionaires and fifth place in the Interior Conference and more importantly injected the team with some much needed confidence that should be on full display tonight in the Coliseum. Game time tonight is 7:00 in the Prince George Coliseum, the first game in a month for home town fans. Those unable to attend the game can still catch all the action on 93.1 CFIS-FM and online from the Spruce Kings website. Following the game, the CNC Challenge Cup will be presented to the winner of the CNC Challenge Cup series.

Rosters ...

Quesnel Millionaires

3 Anderson White (D 6'04" 205 8/16/91 Caledon, ON, CAN) (GP 21 G 0 A 1 Pts 1 18 PIMs)
4 Jacob Verheyden (F 5'10" 186 1/11/89 Vancouver, BC, CAN) (GP 15 G 7 A 8 Pts 15 17 PIMs)
5 Sam Higgins (D 5'10" 165 3/23/90 Calgary, AB, CAN) (GP 40 G 3 A 20 Pts 23 33 PIMs)
6 Spencer Graboski (F 6'02" 170 1/06/93 Quesnel, BC, CAN) (GP 36 G 7 A 7 Pts 14 08 PIMs)
8 Tyson Price (F 5'11" 178 8/18/91 Slave Lake, BC, CAN) (GP 26 G 1 A 3 Pts 4 18 PIMs)
9 Marley Keca (D 6'00" 170 3/08/93 Kelowna, BC, CAN) (GP 5 G 0 A 1 Pts 1 06 PIMs)
14 Skyler Smutek (D 6'00" 175 5/07/90 Seattle, WA, USA) (GP 43 G 8 A 17 Pts 25 90 PIMs)
16 Trevor Hertz (F 6'00" 189 10/11/89 Jaffray, BC, CAN) (GP 44 G 27 A 26 Pts 53 17 PIMs)
17 Taylor Holst (F 6'01" 185 4/24/89 Kelowna, BC, CAN) (GP 44 G 22 A 24 Pts 46 80 PIMs)
18 Joshua Desmarais (F 6'00" 250 1/15/89 St. Laurent, PQ, CAN) (GP 12 G 12 A 8 Pts 20 34 PIMs)
19 Justin Hogan (F 5'11" 185 8/28/90 Val Therese, PQ, CAN) (GP 40 G 9 A 21 Pts 30 57 PIMs)
20 Darick Ste-Marie (F 5'11" 195 9/19/89 St-Bruno, PQ, CAN) (GP 44 G 11 A 24 Pts 35 33 PIMs)
21 Tyler French (F 5'07" 165 9/15/90 Westside, BC, CAN) (GP 38 G 8 A 13 Pts 21 21 PIMs)
22 Mitch Galbraith (F 6'02" 183 4/21/90 Quesnel, BC, CAN) (GP 30 G 5 A 3 Pts 8 41 PIMs)
24 Brandon Watson (F 5'11" 173 2/24/92 Keremeos, BC, CAN) (GP 29 G 1 A 2 Pts 3 43 PIMs)
25 Rylan Stanyer (D 6'02" 210 4/19/90 Burns Lake, BC, CAN) (GP 21 G 0 A 4 Pts 4 29 PIMs)
26 Chris Kerr (F 6'00" 175 10/22/92 Penticton, BC, CAN) (GP 38 G 3 A 2 Pts 5 14 PIMs)
27 Eliot Raibl (D 5'11" 184 3/28/89 Vancouver, BC, CAN) (GP 44 G 5 A 27 Pts 32 57 PIMs)
28 Tyler Billon (D 6'02" 190 7/18/92 Chilliwack, BC, CAN) (GP 31 G 0 A 4 Pts 4 16 PIMs)
29 Clayton Chessa (F 5'10" 185 4/22/91 Surrey, BC, CAN) (GP 31 G 2 A 10 Pts 12 32 PIMs)
31 Kirby Halcrow (G 6'02" 218 3/13/91 Grande Prairie, AB, CAN) (GP 32 G 0 A 3 Pts 3 08 PIMs)
35 Luke Siemens (G 5'11" 165 11/06/92 Delta, BC, CAN) (GP 17 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)


Prince George Spruce Kings

5 Justin Fillion (D 5'11" 175 4/23/90 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 45 G 6 A 28 Pts 34 64 PIMs)
7 Jesse Scrimbit (D 6'01" 180 12/19/90 Sicamous, BC, CAN) (GP 40 G 0 A 4 Pts 4 31 PIMs)
8 Jonathan Gibson (D 6'01" 205 2/01/90 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 41 G 4 A 5 Pts 9 43 PIMs)
9 Nick DeSousa (F 6'00" 180 11/13/90 Fraser Lake, BC, CAN) (GP 41 G 20 A 12 Pts 32 22 PIMs)
10 Brad Bourke (D 6'01" 175 4/21/89 Onoway, AB, CAN) (GP 42 G 6 A 18 Pts 24 47 PIMs)
11 Kyle Manlow (F 5'10" 165 6/28/91 Murrieta, CA, USA) (GP 44 G 5 A 2 Pts 7 19 PIMs)
12 Max Mois (F 5'11" 165 1/27/93 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 1 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)
14 Lyndon Martell (F 6'01" 190 1/13/93 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 29 G 9 A 12 Pts 21 10 PIMs)
15 Luke Hannas (F 6'02" 185 9/09/91 Williams Lake, BC, CAN) (GP 39 G 0 A 5 Pts 5 103 PIMs)
16 Jeff Earnest (F 5'10" 175 2/08/91 Anchorage, AK, USA) (GP 37 G 8 A 9 Pts 17 53 PIMs)
17 Jordie Cool (F 5'10" 165 4/16/92 Tumbler Ridge, BC, CAN) (GP 1 G 1 A 0 Pts 1 00 PIMs)
19 Joe Morgan (F 5'08" 180 4/07/89 Kitimat, BC, CAN) (GP 34 G 8 A 22 Pts 30 22 PIMs)
20 Jeff Datoff (D 5'10" 160 5/26/92 Nanaimo, BC, CAN) (GP 30 G 0 A 1 Pts 1 07 PIMs)
21 Stewart Lambert (F 6'00" 175 4/05/90 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 24 G 2 A 1 Pts 3 09 PIMs)
22 Jeremy Wiebe (F 6'00" 180 7/20/91 Vernon, BC, CAN) (GP 39 G 1 A 1 Pts 2 87 PIMs)
23 RJay Berra (F 6'00" 180 7/26/90 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 45 G 10 A 11 Pts 21 13 PIMs)
25 Zac Rasmussen (F 5'09" 178 5/08/89 Kamloops, BC, CAN) (GP 41 G 14 A 20 Pts 34 88 PIMs)
26 Sam Muchalla (F 5'08" 150 8/14/90 Prince George, BC, CAN) (GP 43 G 23 A 34 Pts 57 50 PIMs)
30 Andrew Walsh (G 6'02" 185 12/15/90 Dawson Creek, BC, CAN) (GP 30 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 18 PIMs)
35 Kyle Nielsen (G 5'10" 170 7/21/90 New Westminster, BC, CAN) (GP 18 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 00 PIMs)

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