Training Camp Wrap-Up

This week has been a whirlwind since the opening night practice. Three intra-squad games have been played, where the 40 man roster has been split in two, and then played full games against one another. It wasn't just games going on this week though.

Tuesday the boys went through fitness testing, where the team did the following exercises: bench press, deadlift, push-ups, chin-ups, leg raises, and finished with an interesting drill that tested their overall fitness by measuring oxygen levels while they did lateral jumps back and forth.

Wednesday took the team on the “Royal Run” where they ran up through the UNBC connector trails, and ended at Shane Lake. With his team coming first overall, Cole Todd also finished with the best personal time, and said this the day after, “You go into those events, and you just want to set the pace, and be an example for the younger guys, so that’s what I tried to do.”

Thursday brought them to YMCA, where the boys got the opportunity for some team binding through rock climbing, and an obstacle course later on.

Walk home after the Royal Run

Now after four days of training camp, the boys are ready to take on some more competition. While playing intra-squad games does bring a game like mentality, it really isn’t the same as playing a different opponent like the team will do this weekend when they take on the Merritt Centennials in a home and home match up. Friday the teams will be in Prince George, and then make their way over to Merritt for the second game of the series.

 “I’ve got a couple buddies on that team. I’d like to be in the lineup and push the pace so I’m excited,” Cole Todd added about playing the Centennials this weekend. 

The team will work on narrowing their roster to be ready for their season/home opener on September 11^th when they take on the new expansion team, the Wenatchee Wild. 

Training Camp: Day 1

Assistant Head Coach, Adam Maglio with players

     Today kicked off the beginning of training camp for the Prince George Spruce kings. With summer coming to a close, 41 boys waited in the lobby of the Coliseum to sign in, and kick off a week of try-outs. After weighing in, and having their height measured, the group broke into two groups to begin practice, with one team taking the early practice, and the other taking the late night shift.

     The first group had the majority of returning Spruce Kings players, while the second had the three Cariboo Cougar players attempting to crack the line-up. Night one consisted of just drills, so it was tough to get a good read on players, but it was a good opportunity for them to gel together, and prepare for the games amongst themselves that will be going on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

     I read an article a while back about Connor McDavid, and it said that while in exhibition games he would score on his first few shifts, and then focus on passing it off to team mates from there on in. Now I'm not saying Cole Todd is Connor McDavid, but that's the kind of performance I saw tonight. The first two shots I saw him take went in, and  from there on while he tried to score, his priority seemed to shift to being a play maker. Being one of the 20 year olds on the team this year, that is exactly the type of leadership that the Spruce Kings are expecting from their returning core.

     For the rest of training camp, Tuesday will consist of fitness testing, and the first intra-squad game, Wednesday will have a "Royal Run" up near UNBC followed by a game at night, and finally Thursday will have rock climbing in the morning followed by the final intra-squad game. All games begin at 7pm, and will be held at the Coliseum.

Training Camp Day 3

Bodies all over the place for the tying goal

The big event for Day Three was the third and final Intra-Squad Game between Team Blue and Team White and true to my expectation, this game delivered!

The Training Camp this year was considered to be a small one with 38 players attending for the weekend. Many of the players were either returning players or players that had been carded in the off-season. The remainder of the camp consisted of players that were either looking for a chance to fill an available spot or knock someone out of contention. There were also a handful of players that are considered to be great prospects for the team but may be a season away from being ready to play Junior A hockey in the BCHL.

The teams were made up in advance by the Spruce Kings General Manager, Mike Hawes, who used his knowledge of the players coming in to make up two fairly balanced team. As the weekend progressed it is now safe to say that he nailed it as can be seen in the results of the three Intra-Squad games and even in the fitness testing and practice times.

On Friday night, Team Blue applied all the pressure early and only seemed to ease up when the game seemed to be well in hand. Final score in the first intra-squad game was 4-2 in favour of Team Blue. The following night was a completely different story with Team White applying all the pressure right to the final whistle. Although there was no scoring in the first period and Team Blue even scored the first goal early in the second, Team White won the game 4-1 on the strength of a three point night by Jeremiah Luedtke (2G, 1A).

With the three game series tied at a win a-piece, the game on Sunday had all the makings of a very competitive one. It was all that and more featuring some great goals, big saves, hard hits and a lot of fiestiness between the two teams.

Team White carried the momentum of the win the night before into this game and applied the pressure early with Liam Board getting the first really good scoring chance only to be turned aside by Liam McLeod. Moments later Skylar Pacheco carried the puck in feeding it up to Ryan Keis who in turn dropped it back from Pacheco. The shot from the right point was perfect finding the top corner on the short side at 4:36 of the first period.

Team White continued to carry the play and two minutes later Riley Hawes found himself crashing the net much to Rourke O'Briain's displeasure. The two were given coincidental minors for roughing. Team Blue started to rally shortly after this and caused some grieve for Team White who ended up taking a pair of penalties twenty seconds apart putting the Team Blue on a two man advantage.

Coltyn Hansen (9 Blue) tips in his first of three

The top line for Team Blue wasted little time in finding the open man on the right side of the crease with a perfect pass and perfect tip-in to tie the game up. The play was started by Lyndon Martell who left the puck in the corner for Cameron Lawson. From deep in the corner and through traffic, Lawson found the tape on Coltyn Hansen's stick at 10:49.

That's how the first period would end, tied 1-1 but with Team Blue coming on from the mid point of the period and it showed on the shot clock as they led that stat 12-6. The second period was another low scoring affair with teams trading goals before the goalie change. As they did in the first, Team White opened the scoring in the second period when Kirk Thompson saw nothing but white jerseys up the ice.

With Team Blue dumping the puck into the zone and going for wholesale changes, Thompson picked up the puck and quickly fed it up the ice to Chad Staley who in turn passed it up to wide open Jeremiah Luedtke as he crossed the opposition's blue line. The shot itself was nothing more than a quick snap shot that eluded Liam McLeod giving Team White their second lead of the game 2-1 at 5:28 of the second period.

Team Blue would answer back six minutes later with Rourke O'Briain's first of the weekend at 11:45 after Kirk Hards dished out a nice pass from behind the goal line. Cameron Lawson was also in on the play after keeping it in the zone knocking down the clearing attempt. Again the teams would head to their dressing rooms tied, this time 2-2 with Team Blue still leading on the shot clock 20-15.

I have to rewind here a bit to talk a little bit about a Prince George player that I can't wait to see in a Spruce Kings jersey full time. Kirk Hards is a small player that plays with a big edge and isn't afraid to cause a little commotion when he's on the ice. The agitator reminds me of a Zac Rasmussen with the buzzing capabilities of any one of the Fitzgerald triplets.

With about a minute and a half remaining in the second period, Hards followed the play into the crease and never let up getting in a little extra shot. As he skated away, the usually mild mannered Skylar Pacheco came over and grabbed Hards to let him know he can't do that. Unfortunately for Pacheco it cost him two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct at 18:39.

To start the third period Team Blue were all standing at the bench rallying the players on the ice with the familiar stick slap on the boards. The rally cry worked and worked quickly as Coltyn Hansen scored his second goal of the night again on the powerplay and again on the nice pass from Lyndon Martell with Mitch Eden getting the other assist.

The goal seemed to rejuvenate Team Blue especially the top line when they came out for the second shift of the period. Hansen picked up his hat trick goal and again it was Martell with the first assist at 4:00. The goal took the wind out of the sails of Team White and the next ten minutes of the game didn't seem to generate too many chances until Tyson Witala was sprung on a breakaway. Witala had everything going for him but just couldn't tuck the puck under Adam Griffith.

To make matters worse for Team White, the top line for Team Blue came back out and again Lyndon Martell was the setup man this time for Cameron Lawson who scored his third of the weekend to put the game out of reach at 5-2. Did I say out of reach? Apparently nobody told Team White or at least Tyson Witala wasn't listening.

Witala who had been robbed on the breakaway just a shift earlier made no mistake with the pass from Pacheco to bury his first of the game at 16:13. Team White called their time out, drew up a play and left the Witala line out there and it resulted in a fourth goal for Team White just 35 seconds later. Witala found the loose puck on a goal mouth scramble and buried it with assists credited to Liam Board and Brad Ryan.

Jeremy Matte with the save of the game

If the time out wasn't the Studio Cuts Crowning Moment of the Game, the save Jeremy Matte made off Lyndon Martell was. The setup man on four of Team Blue's goals found himself streaking down the left side on an uncontested 2-on-1 only to have his shot stopped by Matte. Spencer Schoech picked up the puck for Team White and went the other way finding the man with the golden touch. Tyson Witala's bid at a hat trick was stopped but Chad Staley was right there to put in the tying goal at 18:25.

Both teams tried to end it in regulation but there was no denying this one going to a shootout to determine a winner. Team Blue went first electing to go with Lyndon Martell who tried to sneak the puck in on the far side but somehow Matte kept it in front of the goal post even as it came off it's moorings. Chad Staley was given the first shot for Team White and he too would be stopped.

The second shooter for Team Blue was Cameron Lawson who tried to pull Matte off the far post. For a 5' 8" goalie, Matte has pretty good leg extension and was able to get a toe on the shot sending it wide. Team White sent Jeremiah Luedtke up next who went right down the middle. When Adam Griffith wouldn't give up the five hole, Luedtke just picked the corner, putting the pressure on Team Blue to score with their third shooter.

Team Blue elected to go with the defenceman Mitch Eden who came in tight on the forehand and was poke checked before he could get the puck over to his backhand side. The save completed the comeback for Team White who were down by three goals with less than four minutes remaining in the game. As Todd Doherty (Team White coach) said in a tweet after the game, "#teameffort."

It was an entertaining game to watch and the 350 plus fans in attendance showed their appreciation throughout the game especially in those final minutes as they watched the comeback. Also on hand to watch all the games, practices and fitness testing were the coaches and scouts who had the unenviable task of informing players afterwards if they would be staying or not for the exhibition season.

At the time of this blog, I only have an unofficial list of players so I will leave it until tomorrow. The players that will be sticking around for at least a few more days will be practicing on Monday and then heading to Chase for a pair of preseason games against the Trail Smoke Eaters on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Spruce Kings will also play a home-and-home series against the Grande Prairie Storm of the Alberta Junior Hockey League on Friday in Grande Prairie and Saturday in Prince George at 7pm.

Training Camp Day 2

Chad Staley prepares to launch the medicine ball
during fitness testing

Day two of the Spruce Kings Training Camp was highlighted by the fitness testing at the Factory Hockey Training facility. The testing was based around what players went through at the NHL Draft Combine in Toronto featuring the beep test, medicine ball toss, lateral jump, pull ups and a mixture of other physical tests designed to measure the players overall strength and conditioning.

The standouts in the fitness testing included Jeremiah Luedtke who made it to level 13-4 in the very tough beep test. In this test the player has a measured length of time to go 20 meters. The time between beeps, when players have to reach the end of each length, is shorter as the test continues. The other big test was the 12 pound medicine ball test that saw Trevor Esau complete a toss of 42 feet, 7 inches.

In all the physical testing took over an hour to complete right in the middle of the day after the morning practice and the evening intra-squad game. An interesting comment I overheard from one of the scouts in attendance spoke to how the fitness testing is becoming an important part of the whole process because of the importance put on off-season training. Kinda makes hockey a year round sport.

Day two finished off with the second intra-squad game with Team White knowing they had to do something after dropping a 4-2 decision the night before. A good sized crowd for an unadvertised game was on hand and were treated to highly entertaining contest with lots of shots, scoring chances, hits and hard work on display.

The game started with Team White setting the tone and tempo for the rest of the night getting three early scoring chances off some hard work. Team Blue was able to weather the early storm and come up with a few chances of their own. Really the story of the first half of the game was the goaltenders who both posted scoreless opening periods. Jeremy Matte turned aside 10 shots for Team White while Adam Griffith stood tall stopping an even dozen for Team Blue.

Jeremy Matte making one of his 18 saves on the night

The scoreless tie was broken 1:34 into the second period when Cameron Lawson tapped in his second of the training camp off a nice setup from Lyndon Martell and Sean Landrey. Team White kept up their pressure and were rewarded shortly after with the first of two on the night from Jeremiah Luedtke. In the right place at the right time, Luedtke was able to tap a loose puck into the open side of the net before being checked. Spencer Schoech (pronounced shook) took the original shot that deflected off a defenceman's skate.

That would be it for the goal scoring on the starting goaltenders with Matte stopping 18 of 19 shots during his time in net for Team White and Griffith making 21 saves for Team Blue. Shortly after the goaltending change, Team White was given their third power play chance and used up only 15 seconds to setup the eventual game winning goal - Ryan Keis from Alec Butcher and David London.

Less than two minutes later, Team White doubled their lead with Riley Hawes scoring the goal with helpers going to Chad Staley and Jeremiah Luedtke. Hawes was a last minute addition to the game after another player was unable to go. One player's misfortune becomes another's opportunity! The teams went to the dressing rooms with Team White leading on the scoreboard 3-1 and the shot clock 27-22.

For the longest time it looked like that would be it for scoring as neither team seemed to be able to create good enough chances. That led to some spirited play and few more odd-man situations. With less than three minutes to play a couple of returning players got caught up together and Landrey ended up with the worst of it after flipping Kirk Thompson's stick out to the blue line.

Jeremiah Luedtke had a great game
finishing with two goals and an assist

Landrey was assessed a double minor giving Team White an opportunity to finish the game with the man advantage. Less than 20 seconds into the powerplay Luedtke was again found to be in the right spot at the right time and able to snap home his second of the game with helpers going to Skylar Pacheco and Brad Ryan. The final shots were extremely close with Team Blue getting to within one (33-32) but unable to get anything past Thompson.

With the intra-squad series now tied at a win a-piece and Team White with a slight edge in the goals for and against category (6-5), this sets up for an interesting tiebreaker Sunday afternoon at 1:30pm in the Coliseum. Prior to the game both teams will have one more practice, Team Blue at 9:00am and Team White at 10:30am.

Following the game will come the difficult decision of deciding who and really how many players will stay on for the exhibition season that gets underway on Tuesday. The Spruce Kings are playing four preseason tuneups starting with a double header against the Trail Smoke Eaters in Chase on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Following a day off, the Spruce Kings will play the first half of a home-and-home series in Grand Prairie against the Storm of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. The lone home game in the preseason will go Saturday night in the Coliseum against the Storm.

Training Camp Day 1

Skylar Pacheo scores on this shot for Team White

The Prince George Spruce Kings opened their training camp today at the Coliseum with a total of 38 players (4 goaltenders, 12 defenceman and 22 forwards) in attendance. The numbers this year are a little lower than in past years but that has allowed for the camp to be broke into two teams immediately and pit the teams against each other in three intra-squad game.

After a first look at the players in team specific practices, the two teams reconvened at the Prince George Coliseum for the first of those intra-squad games. Early on Team Blue imposed their way keeping Team White pinned in their own end. Shots on goal prior to the first goal were 7-1 for Team Blue. Kirk Thompson got the start for Team White showing good positioning with the opposition getting some good shots.

Alex Bartel was the first to solve Thompson getting Team Blue on the board at 11:12 of the first period after he found the rebound off a Mitch Eden point shot. Team Blue would go up 2-0 five minutes later when Bryant Christian (yes the younger brother of Spruce Kings alumni Jordy Christian) converted on a play set up by Lydon Martell and Jake LeBrun. That's how the first period would end with Team Blue leading 2-0 on the scoreboard and 17-6 on the shot clock.

Already with three penalties in the first period including one that spilled over into the second, Team White found themselves down in that stat category as well but did a perfect job on the penalty kill. That perfect job went one step farther when Team White found themselves short handed again. Skylar Pacheco was given a gift tip into the neutral zone and wasted no time turning it into a break away. Looking once into the middle for some help and finding none, Pacheco took the shot beating Liam McLeod with the unassisted short handed goal at 5:24.

Before the midway mark of the second period Cameron Lawson made his presence noticed in the game turning on the jets a couple of times. At 9:50 Lawson broke in untouched and snapped a quick wrister that fooled Thompson sneaking in under the goaltenders arm. It was a sour note to end on, but that goal marked the goalie change bringing in Jeremy Matte for Team White and Adam Griffith for Team Blue.

As if the dirty little wrister wasn't enough, Lawson danced around a couple of defenders deep inside the zone and dangled out in front of the net. A quick pull of the puck slid just into the toe of Matte and no further. Matte looked good for his time behind the pipes and was beaten only once by arguably the best line on the ice especially for Team Blue.

Karan Toor got the play started with a point shot from the left side that ended up on the stick of Bryant Christian. Christian was stopped but a juicy rebound in the slot with Lyndon Martell cruising through quickly found the back of the net making it a 4-1 lead for Team Blue.

The third period seemed to be a little more intense with a few big hits and some extended gatherings around the net, but not much on the scoreclock. Chad Staley was the only one to register a goal in the final frame but perhaps it was too little too late as Team White just couldn't seem to fully recover offensively. Staley's goal (assists to David London and Liam Board) would come with 1:38 remaining in the third period and that's how the game would end with Team Blue winning 4-2.

Final shots on goal were 39-30 for Team Blue. Kirk Thompson made 20 saves and Jeremy Matte stopped 15 shots in the loss, Liam McLeod had 11 and Adam Griffith turned aside 17 of 18 shots. Team White was penalized four times while Team Blue received two minor infractions. Neither team was able to capitalize on the man advantage but Team White did have that short handed marker.

The officials went with the four man system, Brendon Creyke and Bill Hudyma wore the red stripes while Nick Albinati and Ritchie Rodgers worked the lines. The officials introduced the full set of BCHL rules into the intra-squad game including the no change icing and no change for clearing the puck out of play from the defensive zone.

Tomorrow morning the players will report back to the Coliseum for team practices where they will go over some of the things the coaching and scouting staff picked up in the first game. After the practices, the teams will head over to the Factory Hockey Training facility for some off-ice fitness testing. After the dinner break, the teams will drop the puck for their second intra-squad game beginning at 8pm in the Prince George Coliseum.

From the Desk of Mike Hawes

I had the opportunity to stop by the Spruce Kings office earlier today, well actually it was designed as I wanted to talk to the hockey operations staff about some of the latest news surrounding the team and the league.

This past weekend marked the BCHL AGM and I'm told it covered a lot of league business and planning for the future. It also covered the usual items such as reviewing proposed rule changes and drafting up the coming schedule. Much of the meeting is about getting the chance to meet as representatives of the individual teams without the distraction of competitive games getting in the way.

On June 1st, Hockey Canada released to the teams their allotment of cards so that teams could go out and start actively filling spots for the 2010-11 season. The process of recruiting is an ongoing process that is completed when a player signs one of the cards belonging to a team. For players it adds security in knowing where they will be playing to start the coming season and for teams it is a chance to breathe a little easier knowing that the players they want to build around are in place.

That is where I started my conversation with Mike Hawes, the assistant general manager and director of player personnel for the Spruce Kings. With the announcement last week of the signing of four players, I asked Mike about the players and what qualities they bring to the Spruce Kings.

Training Camp - Day Three

1:00pm - With the final buzzer of the game between Team Grey and Team White, so ends the scrimmage portion of the main camp. Team Grey finished the weekend with a 3 and 1 record after defeating Team White 4-3. Goal scorers for Team White were Tyson Witala, RJay Berra and Sam Muchalla. Team Grey got their goals from Nick DeSousa, Steven Powers and a pair from Brooks Robinson.

Now comes the prep time for the Intra Squad game which starts at 3:00pm. The game is open to the public for the admission price of a toonie. Roster is being finalized and will be posted shortly.

11:00am - First game of the day is a repeat appearance for Team Red and Team Blue from their first game on Friday where the blue squad defeated red 7-2. It was clear to see the improvement on both squads as the play was tight and it took a long to get the game's first goal. It was almost twelve minutes before Colten Derickson would open the scoring for Team Blue with a hard shot from the faceoff circle.

Joe Morgan made it 2-0 before Justin Fillion would reply for Team Red. In the second half, Team Red found their scoring touch for three in a row to take their first lead of the game. Fillion started with an unassisted tally after stripping the puck in the offensive zone then Fillion found Andrew Pickering open at the side of the net. One of my favourite goals was scored on a nice breakaway feed that started with a beauty pass out of the defensive zone. The recipient of the Chris Allbee pass was Oliver Holt who was in all alone from the nuetral zone and made a nice backhand fake to draw the goaltender off the far post.

At the end of the game, the players were seen filing into the Spruce Kings dressing room to meet with the real coaching staff. There is one more scrimmage to be played with Team White and Team Grey meeting one another again and then it will be the Intra Squad game at 3:00pm. Once the roster is finalized for the Blue White game, it will be posted here.

Training Camp - Day Two

11:00pm - The quick update to wrapup day two at the main camp is to let you know that there are no undefeated teams or teams looking for their first win. In the last game of the day, Team Red took on the camp leading Team Grey squad and found a way to end their winning ways with an impressive 11-3 victory. The big goal scorer in that game was Adam Baldassarre with a total of four goals.

In the earlier evening scrimmage, Team White improved to a 2-1 record with a 6-3 victory over Team Blue who dropped to a 1 and 2 record. Goal scorers for Team White were RJay Berra with three, Van Imoo, James Cannon and Tyson Witala. Colten Derickson, Jeff Datoff and Joe Morgan tallied for Team Blue.

Back to the late game and the goal scorers starting with Team Grey - Steven Powers picked up one and Brooks Robinson picked up their other two. Besides the four goals by Baldassarre, Team Red also got scoring production from Clayton McEwan, Adrian Moyls, Kalen Spoletini, Justin Fillion, Jeff Earnest and Jeremy Wiebe with a pair.

6:00pm - The fitness testing is done and the boys did pretty good. Mike Webber and Gibby Chasse of X-Condition put everybody through their paces with two passes at a 20 metre sprint, a 20 metre pro-agility test and the ever popular beep test also over a twenty metre distance.

Although there was no Usain Bolt on the track at Masich Place Stadium, the average across the board in the sprint was in the low 3 second mark. Scanning the numbers, the best run was Geoff Morgan at 2.78; but get this, both Morgan twins registered identical 2.81 times in their first run throughs. Geoff bested his brother Joe in the second run by a margin of 12/100th of a second. The other interesting thing to remember about the twins is that they aren't on the same team so they did the identical times an hour apart.

With only five minutes between the first and second sprint for each player, there isn't much time for the body to fully recover making the second run that much more difficult to improve upon. One player that did improve significantly the second time through was Andrew Pickering who shaved almost three tenths of a second off his first time - the best improvement out of anyone on the day.

The pro-agility test was a test of lateral explosion with quick stops and two reverses over the twenty metre testing strip. The players started as if in a sprinters block with their opposite hand on a pylon in front of them and then had to explode sprinting either to their left or to their right, braking and touching a pylon before reversing to sprint the full 20 metres to the opposite pylon and then back again through the starting point.

The average for this test was in the mid eight second mark with only two players doing better than eight seconds. Sam Muchalla won this event with a time of 7.90 followed by Joe Morgan with a mark of 7.97. Wes McLeod finished third with an identical time of 8.00 in both directions. From my perspective, footwear was a contributing factor in this event with the explosive starts, quick stops and the reverse explosions on the cork track saw a few guys lose their grip and resulted in a few blowouts.

Truth be told, I have never done the beep test and have no idea where I would finish in this gruelling test that requires the athlete to pace themselves through ever increasing time intervals. It starts out at a bit better than a walking pace over a 20 metre distance with timed beeps indicated when the athlete has to reverse direction. If a runner fails to reach the pylon for the turn twice in a row, the runner is done and will register a score based on the level they completed successfully.

In the beep test it seems that getting inside level 10 is the bench mark as this is when it starts getting tougher to pace yourself so that there isn't much of a wait time at either end of the 20 metre expanse. The majority of players were done before reaching level 11 and the early benchmark was level 13-7 set by Andrew Pickering. Only three players could best that mark with Chris Solecki and Jesse Scrimbit reaching level 14-0 and Evan Smith reaching level 13-13. By the way, Solecki and Smith are both goaltenders, which maybe doesn't come as much of a surprise as this position requires players to be able to match the tempo of the game for the full sixty minutes without the benefit of a line change.

1:30pm - Second scrimmage of the morning is now done putting four games into the books at the 2009-10 Spruce Kings main camp. This game featured Team Grey and Team Blue who were both 1 and 0 heading in. After the sixty minutes were up it is Team Grey that came out on top with an 8-3 victory to improve to 2 and 0 record.

Team Grey opened the scoring and never looked back with period leads of 3-1, 6-2 and of course 8-3. Leading the way again in this game was Nick DeSousa with a pair of goals and a pair of helpers. Rounding out the scoring for Team Grey was Dylan DeSousa, Brooks Robinson, Steven Powers, Tyson Hall, Luke Hannas and Geoff Morgan. Team Blue got scoring from Josh Pineiro, Nick Beisher and Joe Morgan.

While I did miss most of this game, listening to the scouts afterwards it sounds like Brooks Robinson scored the highlight goal of the game. After picking up the puck at the top of the defensive zone, Robinson skated through a couple of stick checks and then split the 'D' before beating Team Blue's first goaltender of the game. The line of Robinson, Hall and DeSousa have been causing the most amount of grief for the opposition and Team Red will have to shut down that line later tonight if they want any chance of picking up their first win.

11:15am - The third game scrimmage of the main camp was what I expected as far as intensity and competiitiveness, but unfortunately for Team Red, they suffered the same fate as their first game. They looked good early on and were controlling the game well pressuring the 'D' and getting shots towards the net, but it would be Team White that would open the scoring.

The first goal of the game was the result of some good pressure by the Team White forwards to cause a turnover and then, with traffic in front of the net, slip one through. Team Red did not quit and would score the next three goals to take a 3-1 lead as result of their good puck movement and shots on goal. After giving up those three in a row, Team White would get three of their own to put Team Red down by one again.

The go ahead goal was the result of some excellent puck movement while on the powerplay and then a bullet shot from the high slot by returning defenceman, Wes McLeod. Yes it is true, McLeod will be on the Spruce Kings roster for the 2009-10 seasaon. McLeod sees this year as the best opportunity for him to get ice time and develop more as a solid defenceman. On a side note, I will have his story on the Spruce Kings website, but it will have to wait unilt after camp wraps up.

Back to the game, Team Red would tie it up once more with a quick powerplay goal of their own before the end of the second period. The knife in the side of Team White would come just twelve seconds later and then they would add another early in the third and never looked back.

Goal scorers for Team Red were Kalen Spoletini and Jeff Earnest, Adam Baldassarre scored the power play marker and Andrew Pickering tallied a pair. For Team White, RJay Berra opened the scoring and would add three more including the game winner and insurance marker. As mentioned earlier, Wes McLeod scored that beauty on the powerplay and added one other while Jordan Wood and Sam Muchalla would add singles.

Both teams will now get ready for their fitness testing at Masich Place Stadium beginning at 1:30 with Team Red followed by Team White at 2:30. Team Grey and Team Blue will follow, but right now they are on the ice in the fourth game scrimmage of the camp.

8:30am - The Coliseum is coming alive again for the second day of training camp. Today will feature a total of four scrimmages (two for each team) and fitness testing. With the first day jitters and travel legs out of the way, today should produce a little more intensity and maybe bring out some more competitive rivalry. I will be behind the bench with Adrien Chabot once again for Team Red in the first game of the day at 9:00am.

Training Camp - Day One

10:30pm - The score in the second game was a little closer with Team Grey defeating Team White 7-5. At the mid-way mark the two teams were tied at three but after the flood, Team Grey opened with a quick goal. Early in the third, Team White tied it up again only to see Team Grey pull away with the next two goals and a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

Goal scorers for Team White included Wes McLeod, Stewart Lambert and Sam Muchalla with a hat trick. Steven Powers, Luke Hannas and Geoff Morgan picked up singles for Team Grey while Nick DeSousa and Tyson Hall scored twice each. One time major midget team mates, Lambert and Hannas renewed acquaintances by dropping their gloves in the third period.

With one scrimmage under everyone's belt, some players have probably realized just how much of a step up it is to play Junior A and will be looking to make an early impression on Saturday. For others it may just be a feeling that they want to show something more now that they have been given back the feel of the game. For everyone, it is a safe bet that no one will be satisfied and that means that the spectators will be treated to some more entertaining hockey on Saturday in the Coliseum.

8:00pm - Was it puck luck, dumb luck or something else? Maybe it was the coach, either way Team Red came out on the wrong end of a 7-2 score giving up five goals in the first half of the game. Goal scorers for Team Red were Chris Allbee and Adam Baldassarre. On the other side Joe Morgan was the leading goal scorer for Team Blue with four. Nick Beischer (pron: Bay-Sure) had a pair and Joe Becker tallied with the only goal in the final twenty minutes.

In the third period, Team Red had their chances and just couldn't bury for one reason or another but did carry the majority of the play. These two teams will get to do it again on Sunday morning after they play Team White and Team Grey in their Saturday scrimmages. Saturday is also fitness day with players heading to Masich Place Stadium in the afternoon for fitness testing.

The X-Conditioning staff will be measuring the player's fitness, conditioning and strength with a series of tests including sprints, the beep test, a professional agility test and a few other fitness tests. All sessions, including the fitness testing is open to the public as the players continue through the camp leading up to Sunday's Intra Squad Game. The Annual Blue White game will be played at the Prince George Coliseum beginning at 3:00pm, admission is just a toonie for everyone with children getting in for free.

5:30pm - I'm on the bench in a half hour coaching Team Red with the likes of Andrew Pickering, Justin Fillion, Jeff Earnest and Adam Baldassarre on that roster. A number of hopefuls will be looking for their first opportunity to impress the coaches and scouts.

3:30pm - Everybody at the camp has now stepped on the ice at the Coliseum as the second half of the camp starts their practice session. Team Grey and Team White spent a little time before hitting the dressing room just watching the previous practice session. With Team Red and Team Blue off the ice now, they will get ready for the first game scrimmage.

1:30pm - Team assignments have been made for the players and the coaches ... I will be coaching Team Red all weekend along with Adrien Chabot. I'm looking forward to it as our counterparts on the other bench will be the team's marketing manager Jim Young and Todd Doherty. First up is a little practice time with Ed Dempsey for both Team Red and Team Blue at 2:00pm. Then those two teams will meet each other at 6:00pm for the first game scrimmage of the camp.

12:40pm - Almost all of the expected sixty players have come through the registration lineup for the training camp. Lots of handshakes and wishes for a big season from the veterans. I think I also caught a few "I'm checking you out glances" from some of the new prospects. It's going to be a good training camp.

11:00am - An hour beforehand and there are already a large number of prospects wandering the Castle waiting for the noon start time for registration. The Spruce Kings office is starting to fill up too with scouts who will be on hand this weekend to help with the evaluation of the expected sixty plus players. It is all contributing to raising the excitement level around the rink in anticipation of a new hockey season.

Throughout the weekend I will be posting short blogs here and tweets on the Spruce Kings twitter account. Feel free to leave me comments and questions about the training camp and I will respond as best I can given the amount of activity that is expected around the Coliseum.

Training Camp - Day Zero

Okay here it is, just hours before registration and the official start of training camp. As I was able to mention yesterday, almost all of the returning players and a few of the off-season recruits and even a few of the prospects for the 2009-10 season have already hit the ice in preparation of the Spruce Kings main camp.

The first order of business will be the registration of the players beginning at noon. All players will be weighed and measured and then assigned to one of four teams for practices, scrimmages and a series of fitness tests. The first ice time will be for Team Red and Team Blue who will be on the ice for a ninety minute practice ... Team White and Team Grey will follow with their practice time.

The first game scrimmage will be at 6:00 between Team Red and Team Blue, Team White and Team Grey will have their first scrimmage at 8:15pm. The teams will then switch up opponents for a pair of scrimmages that will bookend some fitness testing at Masich Place Stadium. Sunday morning the four teams will play their final opponents in the final two scrimmages of main camp before gearing up for the annual intra squad game.

All of the events are open to the public including the Blue White game Sunday at 3:00pm in the Coliseum. The game will feature a heavy rookie laden squad with a few veterans on each roster. The game itself will be a normal game with referees and off-ice officials, but the players know it will be their biggest game of the weekend.

Friday, August 28, 2009

12:00pm - 1:00pm
Player Registration at the Prince George Coliseum

Session 1

2:00pm - 3:30pm - Team Red and Team Blue practice
3:45pm - 5:15pm - Team White and Team Grey practice

Session 2

6:00pm - 8:15pm - Team Red vs Team Blue game
8:30pm - 10:30pm - Team White vs Team Grey game

Saturday August 29, 2009

Session 3

9:00am - 11:00am - Team Red vs Team White game
11:15am - 1:15pm - Team Blue vs Team Grey game

Session 4

1:30pm - 2:30pm - Team Red fitness testing
2:30pm - 3:30pm - Team White fitness testing
3:30pm - 4:30pm - Team Blue fitness testing
4:30pm - 5:40pm - Team Grey fitness testing

Session 5

6:30pm - 8:30pm - Team White vs Team Blue game
8:45pm - 10:45pm - Team Grey vs Team Red game

Sunday August 30, 2009

Session 6

9:00am - 11:00am - Team Blue vs Team Red game
11:15am - 1:15pm - Team Grey vs Team White game

Intra Squad Game

3:00pm - 6:00pm - Spruce Kings Blue vs Spruce Kings White game

*all ice times are at the Prince George Coliseum
*all fitness testing conducted at Masich Place Stadium

Ice Time

Players have been arriving in Prince George steadily from points both near and far in preparation for the main camp on Friday. The guys have all been working and training hard over the summer months ... and it shows. Watching the guys scrimmaging these past couple of days has been a treat with both new and returning players showing off some of their new found skills.

As well as the players that will be competing in the main camp, there is also at least one other player that is already pushing the players hard. Ronald Petrovicky has been out everyday skating with the Spruce Kings in advance of heading to the Vancouver Canucks training camp in early September. Petro has been playing with an edge and as much fun as it is watching Petrovicky, it is equally interesting watching how the different guys play with and against the big guy.

The returning players from last year look like they have found a higher gear over the summer. Muchalla has been working out with Gibby Chasse and Mike Webber at X-Conditioning with a training schedule that included ice time on alternating days. I'm hearing from many of the players that they have all been working out and training both on and off the ice.

The player that has travelled the farthest did so by car, Joe Becker spent over twenty five hours on the road driving from Minnesota. It was a decision that Becker says was an easy one to make citing the scenery and the luxury of having a vehicle through the season.

Whether they are driving or flying in for the training camp, it is clear to see that these players already have their game face on. The Spruce Kings training camp starts with registration at noon on Friday in the Coliseum and then shifts almost immediately to the ice with practices and scrimmages. Saturday will be another full day of scrimmages and fitness testing conducted by the trainers from X-Conditioning. Sunday marks the final day of the main camp with one last scrimmage before the annual Intra Squad game at 3:00.

A full camp schedule can be found on the Spruce Kings website.