CNC Challenge Cup, the Playoff Race and Magic Numbers

It comes down to this weekend to crown a champion in the CNC Challenge Cup Series between the Quesnel Millionaires and the Prince George Spruce Kings. Over the course of the nine year history of the championship between these two long-time rivals, it is the Spruce Kings that have enjoyed the bragging rights seven times including the last six in a row. Seventh heaven hasn't been nearly as easy to secure as the early championships and it could very well come down to the final game and some quick tie-breaking calculations.

This season the CNC Challenge Cup Series is based on the ten regular season matchups between the two teams. Through eight games, the Quesnel Millionaires have a slight 9-8 lead in points awarded through head-to-head wins. The Spruce Kings have a record of 4 wins and 4 losses with one of those wins coming in overtime which gave the Millionaires the one extra point with a record of 4-3-0-1.

The simple scenarios is a pair of regulation time games where four points would be split up. If the Millionaires split a pair of regulation time games, they will hoist the Cup at centre ice in the Coliseum on Saturday night. For Prince George to hold onto their title and extend it to an unprecedented seventh consecutive time, they have to pick up a minimum of one more point than Quesnel.

The scenarios of overtime, including a no-decision tie, could leave both teams with the same amount of points leading to the first tie breaker of goals for and goals against. The Spruce Kings have the edge in that stat heading into the weekend thanks to one game in particular that saw the royal ones break the bank with an 11-4 victory back on November 21st. Hang on though, don't get ahead of yourself as the differential is closer than you might think. The Spruce Kings have scored 30 goals through the eight games while the Millionaires have tallied 28 times.

Should make for an interesting couple of games from a couple of teams that have everything to gain at the other's expense. Of course there is the CNC Challenge Cup itself, but there is also the points in the Interior Conference where four teams are battling for three playoff spots. The Quesnel Millionaires head into the weekend with 17 games remaining sitting in fifth spot with 34 points. The Merritt Centennials have a share of that fifth spot with 34 points, but only have 16 games remaining. The Trail Smoke Eaters are right behind those two with 33 points and a game in hand on the Spruce Kings.

The Quesnel Millionaires and the Prince George Spruce Kings have almost identical schedules to the end of the regular season with both teams still to make the Island road trip as well as host Nanaimo, Victoria and Burnaby. Both teams have a pair of games against the Penticton Vees and a single with the Merritt Centenials. The only difference is that the Millionaires have to play the Westside Warriors, while the Spruce Kings have to go into Vernon still to play the Vipers. The extra game for Quesnel will be against Williams Lake as they still have four games remaining against the Timberwolves while the Spruce Kings only have three.

The Trail Smoke Eaters have arguable the toughest remaining schedule with a total of eight games against the top five Coastal Conference teams including two against each of the top three teams from the other division. The Smokies also have to contend with the Penticton Vees four times before the end of the season as well as a pair of meetings with both the Salmon Arm Silverbacks and the Westside Warriors. There is also a single against the Merritt Centennials that could become the decisive game for a playoff position.

The Merritt Centennials don't have a much easier schedule with the exception of not having any real Coastal Conference road trips remaining. The Centennials will play in Surrey and will host Nanaimo and Cowichan Valley. Where it becomes tough for Merritt is their three game sets against Penticton and Salmon Arm. The Cents also have a pair against Vernon and singles against Westside, Quesnel, Prince George, Williams Lake and that season ending home date with Trail.

It isn't fair to completely rule out the Williams Lake Timberwolves in all of this either as they have the most games remaining at twenty. The T'wolves do have one four game Coastal Conference road trip with two on the island and two in the Lower Mainland. The remaining sixteen games feature three against Coastal teams and four against the upper Interior Conference teams. It's the other nine games that are the most interesting as the Timberwolves could play the role of spoiler or even propel themselves into the hunt for one of the bottom three playoff spots.

It's still too early to be counting magic numbers but if you are wondering, the Spruce Kings magic number against the Quesnel Millionaires is 41. That's any combination of points gained by the Spruce Kings and lost by the Millionaires. It is that magic number that puts so much importance on the games this weekend as the magic number has the potential to change by eight points. The other magic numbers are 40 against Trail, 39 against Merritt and 32 against Williams Lake.

Game 7 - at Williams Lake Timberwolves

Of note ...
Due to some technical difficulties with the internet at the Cariboo Community Complex, a more detailed summary was not available at the time of the game. Look for a better write of the game later today including information on a possible suspension to one Spruce King.

Third Period Summary ...
No scoring in the third, but plenty of other action as Jeremy Wiebe, Josh Pineiro and Luke Hannas all get served with early departure notices for some extra-curricular activities. Just imagine ... these two teams meet again same place, same time on Saturday night! Could be interesting.

Second Period Summary ...
A pair of power play goals and a pair of even strenght goals has the Spruce Kings up 6-0 after forty minutes.

First Period Summary ...
Spruce Kings lead 2-0 after twenty minutes.

Game Preview ...
The Spruce Kings find themselves in Williams Lake for the back half of their home-and-home with the Timberwolves. On Friday night the Spruce Kings came away with a 6-3 home ice victory and sent the T'Wolves on the road where they came up empty on the next two nights as well. Meanwhile the Spruce Kings got to enjoy their win and plan on finding another two points again tonight, but it won't be easy as the hosts aren't likely to have forgotten Friday night.

Two points tonight for Prince George will see the Spruce Kings leap over the Quesnel Millionaires into fifth place in the Interior Division just two points back of the Salmon Arm Silverbacks and fourth. The Timberwolves have the eyes set on pulling even with their visitors however, as they find themselves with only one win on the young season.

Back to Friday night in the Castle when the Spruce Kings opened up a 4-1 lead on the Timberwolves on the strength of two goals by Sam Muchalla less than two minutes apart. That night saw the Spruce Kings short-handed with five injuries limiting the available bodies to just eighteen. The shortened bench may have been the ticket that the top line was looking for to jump into the scoring leaders race.

Muchalla jumped into the top 15 with his five point performance (2 goals and 3 assists) as did Brooks Robinson with his four assist performance. Joe Morgan contributed on the top line as well, being the play maker and agitator and getting into the dirty areas. Another Spruce King with big numbers on the night was Wes McLeod who scored two of his own and added an assist to sit third among the Spruce Kings scoring leaders with nine points.

Speaking of Wes, he will be back in the lineup for his birthday after skating at the Team Canada West Evaluaion Camp in Okotoks Alberta. The camp was all about identify the next roster to represent Team Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge. Talking with Wes after the event he told me that the camp was high tempoed and fast paced with high calibre players demonstrating their skills for the Team Canada West management team. Wes scored in the final game and is very happy with his performance overall and will now await the decision as to whether or not he will be filling one of the five 19 year old spots on the team.

During the second intermission of tonight's game, I will have an interview with Wes McLeod to talk about the experience and a few other things. The game will be broadcast on 93.1 CFIS-FM and also available online from the CFIS-FM Listen Live link on the Spruce Kings website. If you have questions or comments, feel free to send me a comment from this post and I will get it and respond from my BlackBerry.

Rosters ...

Williams Lake Timberwolves

1 Kirk Croswell (G 5'11" 175 9/23/1990)
3 Michael Jorgensen (D 6'00" 180 3/2/1992)
4 Darren Tarasoff (D 6'01" 195 3/10/1990)
5 Colin Wandfluh (D 5'11" 180 8/8/1990)
6 Riley Sweeney (D 5'11" 185 8/31/1992)
7 Calvin Johnson (F 5'10" 165 5/28/1992)
8 Dane Rupert (F 5'08" 170 4/16/1991)
9 Josh MacDonald (F 6'00" 180 5/6/1990)
11 Ryan Stanimir (F 6'00" 175 3/4/1990)
12 Craig Eisenhut (F 5'11" 190 5/19/1990)
13 Laine Keyes (F 5'09" 170 4/13/1990)
14 Kyle Leung (F 5'07" 165 3/5/1990)
16 Anthony DeLong (F 6'00" 165 2/8/1991)
17 Cody Abbey (F 6'01" 200 1/10/1991)
19 Keagan Little (F 6'00" 170 10/3/1989)
21 Keenan Bailey (F 6'00" 175 2/10/1991)
22 Justin Bardarson (F 5'10" 190 6/6/1990)
23 Trent Murdoch (F 5'11" 155 7/31/1991)
24 Jake Harcoff (D 5'10" 185 10/17/1990)
26 Josh Garneau (D 5'09" 175 5/4/1991)
27 Jason Diehl (F 6'02" 195 7/24/1989)
28 Kyle Beaulieu (D 6'03" 195 1/16/1991)
55 Evan Dauenhauer (G 5'11" 175 12/19/1989)


Prince George Spruce Kings

1 Alex Wright (G 6'01" 185 4/20/1990)
3 Wes McLeod (D 6'02" 185 9/30/1990)
4 Clayton McEwan (D 6'00" 180 11/26/1991)
5 Justin Fillion (D 5'11" 175 4/23/1990)
7 Jesse Scrimbit (D 6'01" 180 12/19/1990)
8 Jonathan Gibson (D 6'01" 205 2/1/1990)
9 Nick DeSousa (F 6'00" 180 11/13/1990)
10 Andrew Pickering (F 5'10" 175 6/2/1989)
11 Kyle Manlow (F 5'10" 165 6/28/1991)
12 Joe Becker (F 5'10" 180 1/29/1990)
15 Luke Hannas (F 6'02" 185 9/9/1991)
16 Jeff Earnest (F 5'10" 175 2/8/1991)
17 Brooks Robinson (F 5'11" 180 8/18/1989)
18 Colten Derickson (F 6'00" 200 11/15/1989)
19 Joe Morgan (F 5'08" 180 4/7/1989)
20 Jeff Datoff (D 5'10" 160 5/26/1992)
21 Stewart Lambert (F 6'00" 175 4/5/1990)
22 Jeremy Wiebe (F 6'00" 180 7/20/1991)
23 RJay Berra (F 6'00" 180 7/26/1990)
24 Josh Pineiro (D 5'10" 211 8/25/1989)
25 Zac Rasmussen (F 5'09" 178 5/8/1989)
26 Sam Muchalla (F 5'08" 150 8/14/1990)
35 Kyle Nielsen (G 5'10" 170 7/21/1990)

Intra Squad Game

Over the past week or so I have fielded a few calls down at the Spruce Kings office asking when main camp is, when and where are the exhibition games as well as a few other scheduling type questions. Obviously there is a feeling that summer has come to an end or at least is quickly on its way out and it is time to start thinking about hockey. The Spruce Kings have been making news over the summer and the stories worth mentioning are escalating, but I just want to give you some dates and times and - in at least one circumstance - a location to help you make the transition from summer.

First of all, look who's back in town ... Joe Morgan, Tyson Hall and Nick DeSousa are already here as is Sam Muchalla and RJay Berra who is back from the Lower Mainland. I spoke with Wes McLeod today who let me know that he will be in Sunday afternoon and Colten Derickson is thinking he will arrive Monday afternoon. The rest of the players will be in town in the first few days of this last full week of August.

As for action on the ice, the players are going to start skating at the Coliseum on Tuesday; although, many of them have had ice whether it be at the Elks Centre and the Coliseum for the local boys or other rinks around the province for those out-of-towners. The ice times will be fairly free flowing with the players themselves pushing each other to be ready for Friday and the start of the team's main camp.

Registration for the main camp begins at noon with the players being assigned to one of four teams. The first two teams will hit the ice for a controlled practice headed up by Ed Dempsey at 2:00 and the rest will run through their drills beginning around 4. In a round-robin style format, there will be scrimmages throughout the weekend beginning with the first two teams meeting at 6:00 Friday night.

Saturday will feature a pair of scrimmages in the morning with the first one at 9:00am and two more in the evening beginning at 6:30pm. In the afternoon all players will go through an intense fitness testing with the team's official trainers from X-Conditioning. The fitness testing will be tough and will include sprinting, the beep test, pro agility test and other strength tests.

Now Sunday might be a day you want to mark down as it will feature the annual Intra Squad Game or Blue and White Game. The day will start with the final two scrimmages of the main camp followed by the Intra Squad Game that gets started at 3:00pm at the Coliseum. This will be a full game with 20 minute periods, floods and all the bells and whistles that you would expect at a regular season game. Admission will be cheap, it's not confirmed yet but it is expected to be just a toonie.

That will then lead into the start of the pre season and the Spruce Kings first test as a team when they play host to the Quesnel Millionaires on Tuesday night at 7:00pm in the Prince George Coliseum. The second game of the exhibition schedule will be played on Wednesday night as the back half of a home-at-home series with the Millionaires in the Smithers Civic Centre. Smithers has been abuzz with the rumours of this event for about a month, but it was only just made official last week and I'm told that more than half the tickets have already been sold.

After a day off, the Spruce Kings will be back at it on Friday night with the three hour bus ride to Williams Lake to welcome the Timberwolves back into the BCHL. After going dark for two seasons, the Cariboo Community Complex will once again be lit up for a Junior 'A' hockey game. The drop of the puck on Friday night in Williams Lake is scheduled for 7:00pm and then the two teams will travel back to Prince George and the final game of the preseason on Saturday night, 7:00pm in the Coliseum.

The following week marks the unofficial end of summer with Labour Day and the return to school, it will also be the first full week of practice for the Spruce Kings in preparation for their first regular season game. The Spruce Kings will open their 14th season in the BCHL at home with a game against the Westside Warriors on Friday September 11th and then Saturday night the Penticton Vees will be in the Castle to meet the royal ones.

It is pretty exciting stuff and the great news is that the ticket prices haven't increased from last year and, in some cases, ticket prices have gone down with the different ticket packages available. One in particular that has come back this year and will provide great value for a family of four is the Family Pack that features game tickets, popcorn and pop for all four people for a cost of $35 ... that's not even $9 a person!

Okay well there you have the schedule of events for the next couple of weeks ... if you would like more, the full schedule is posted on the Spruce Kings website ... or you can CLICK HERE for a printable version (you will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader).