Century Milestone for Thompson

Kirk Thompson (1) in his 100th BCHL career game

On Sunday December 9th, Kirk Thompson marked a memorable milestone playing in his 100th BCHL career game – all of them with the Prince George Spruce Kings. The twenty year old three year veteran of the Spruce Kings reached that milestone in fine fashion capping off a three game weekend sweep with a 4-1 win while turning aside 39 of 40 shots he faced.

The weekend started with a 3-1 win on Friday night and was followed up with a 6-4 win on Saturday night setting the stage for Sunday’s memorable game. The Spruce Kings goaltender has been having a great season between the pipes and has embraced this year as his year to leave a mark on the team’s history.

With 26 games remaining in his final regular season, Thompson is on pace to take over top spot in two of five team records and is eyeing a top five finish in the other three. Thompson is less than 10 complete games away from passing Greg Goodwin who currently sits in top spot with 6001 minutes played. Goodwin also sits with the franchise record for career wins at 37, just one more than Thompson’s current number of 36.

Thompson would love nothing more than to see his name climb the record book ladder when it comes to shutouts, goals against average and save percentage. In all cases there are some notable names on that list including Brad Thiessen, Michael-Lee Teslak, Paul Dainton and Kevin Genoe that all have gone on to play NCAA.

"It's really flattering to be up there with some of those guys that went on to do really great things," said Kirk Thompson when asked about his overall numbers. "I know I'm battling them for save percentage and goals against average but I've learned over the years that the most important number is wins. You can have really great numbers but if you're not winning games you're not going to get a look."

In his 100 games, Kirk Thompson has gone from a wide-eyed rookie to a veteran leader that has taken the much younger goaltender under his wing this season. Thompson remembers what it was like to be a young goalie in the BCHL and wants to make sure he leaves Liam McLeod feeling confident and able to be the Spruce Kings next top goaltender.

"I pride myself on trying do everything I can to help develop Liam," states Thompson. "We've developed a great bond, I'm sure even past this year I'm going to be in touch with Liam throughout his junior career and be friends for a really long time."

I talked to Kirk Thompson about his mentorship of Liam McLeod, numbers and about picking up three wins this past weekend while playing in his 100th game with the Prince George Spruce Kings.

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