Game Day vs Langley Rivermen

Mitch Eden (27) celebrates his game tying goal Sunday

There’s only one game on the BCHL schedule tonight and it features the top two teams from the Mainland Division. The Langley Rivermen are in town, to start a double header to wrap-up the regular season, that’s packed with star power on both ends of the ice.

When the dust finally settles these two teams will have played each other nine times this season with things as close as they could possibly be heading into the final two meetings. Through seven games both teams have three wins and share a tie with each other. The Spruce Kings have the edge with a single point garnered in an overtime loss. They also have a plus two in the goals for against column having outscored the Rivermen 19-17 in those seven matchups.

In their last meeting nothing was settled after seventy minutes in a game that saw some spectacular goaltending at both ends and play makers doing everything they could to grab hold of some momentum. In that game Alex Murray stopped 37 of 40 shots as the icing on an already good weekend for the twenty year old goaltender to earn the BCHL Player of the Week honours.

Not to be outdone, the Langley Rivermen had some serious considerations for the awards with two players picking up hat tricks in a previous game. Matt Ustaski and Evan Anderson both scored important goals for Langley to ensure that they too picked up the single point and remain in the hunt for top spot in the BCHL overall.

Coming in to this game tonight, the Rivermen are tied with Victoria for a share of top spot having amassed 78 points through 56 games so far. Both teams have two games remaining in the season. Langley might think they have the tougher schedule with both their games against Prince George but Victoria has to play a home-and-home series with the Cowichan Valley Capitals who are one point back of the final playoff spot in the Island Division.

These final games are intense all around the League and if tonight’s game lives up to its billing, it will be a measuring stick for the rest of the games to wrap up the regular season and send fans excitedly to the post season. All spots in the Mainland Division have been secured for playoff seeding with games beginning on Tuesday March 4th.

The Langley Rivermen (1) will host the Surrey Eagles (4) in that best of seven Mainland Division matchup while the Spruce Kings (2) will open at home with one of their best ever BCHL records against the Coquitlam Express (3).

The game will be broadcast live online with the pay-per-view feed available through Fasthockey.com and a free audio only webcast on the Spruce Kings Mixlr Channel beginning with a pregame show at 6:40pm. Join Ron St. Clair, Thomas Bohmer and Ron Gallo from the Coliseum with all the play-by-play.