After the seasons first three-in-three road trip resulted in a 1-2 weekend, the Kings return home to the friendly confines of the Hap Parker Arena for a four game home stand that begins Friday night against a pair of Mainland Division teams on the opposite ends of early season fortune. Both the 7-4-2-1 Prince George Spruce Kings and the 3-9-1-1 (entering the weekend) Coquitlam Express will make their lone visits to the Hap Parker Arena this season on Friday (7:15pm) and Sunday (1:30pm) respectively.
vs Prince George Spruce Kings
Friday October 20th, 2017 | 7:15pm
Leg 1 of this year’s Battle Royale has the Kings hosting their Spruce-cousins at the Hap Parker Arena. The Kings swept the season series last year following a 1-0 shutout on the road in October and a 10-4 win on home ice to open 2017. Both games were noticible statistically too. In October, Mitch Adamyk stood on his head, stopping 25 first period shots en route to a 51 save shutout in Prince George. In January, Tristan Mullin recorded a hattrick, while Kyle Betts, Jonny Evans and Cam Donaldson all scored a pair. In fact, all four (plus Ben Berard) had four point nights.
Prince George has been strong this year. Out to a 7-4-2-1 start which included winning five straight to start the season (4 at home) before running into Victoria at the Showcase. Since then, the team has been playing sub-500 hockey with wins against Coquitlam, Surrey and Merritt…but losses to Langley, Surrey (x2) and Merritt.
Where Prince George have struggled a little is away from their home rink, the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena (or the Coliseum as it’ll always be known). The team is 2-5 on the road this year including dropping their last three straight (Merritt, Surrey, Langley). The teams record in Powell River is no better. Outside a 5-4 overtime in in the 2014/2015 season, the Spruce Kings have left Powell River with points just twice since 2004/2005. In both cases they were ties in 2011/2012 and 2006/2007.
Offensively the team is quite deep and scoring is spread out. Third year Spruce King Ethan de Jong leads the team in scoring with 4 goals and 11 assists in 14 games. He’s supported by Kyle Johnson, Dustin Manz and Patrick Cozzi all at 13 points. On the back end the team spots some mobile, albeit not large pieces. Chays Ruddy is the biggest of the six-tet at 6’2, 205. In goal, former Clipper Evan DeBrouwer has the bulk of the starts and his 4-4-1 this season so far. Bradley Cooper has picked up the rest and gone 3-2 with better numbers in both save percentage and goals against average.
vs Coquitlam Express
Sunday October 22nd | 1:30pm
Coquitlam have struggled out of the gate this year, finding themselves at the bottom of the Mainland Division with just 3 wins on the season. This weekend’s road trip sees the team venture out of the lower mainland for the first time since the end of September, and play away from home for just the third time since the Showcase.
Coquitlam’s 3-in-3 starts in Victoria on Friday, goes up to Nanaimo on Saturday before finishing in Powell River on Sunday.
Looking at the numbers, one area where the Express are really struggling this season is scoring. The team has scored just 6 goals in their last 4 games, three of those games were losses. They did grind out a 2-1 in last Friday night hosting Langley. The Express’ 33 goals for this season is the 2nd lowest in the BCHL (Cowichan 29), and their 56 goals against puts them 3rd highest behind Cowichan (61) and Chilliwack (57).
Individually, the Express have leaned on Alex Ambrosio up fromt as his 4 goals leads the team in scoring. Josh Wildauer and Christian Sanda complete the top three in team scoring, while Jake Brien and Jordan Schulting chip in the most from the blue line. In net, Reid Cooper is 1-8-1 on the season after going 5-24-1 last season with Coquitlam. Clay Stevenson is 2-2 in backup.
Sunday will mark the return of Josh Bruce to Powell River. The 2nd year King was traded to the Express ahead of last weekend in exchange for future considerations.
Notes on the Kings
The injury front for the Kings continues to take one step forward, then one step back. The team is still without Callum Volpe on the blue line. The second year King is battling a lower body issue which has kept him out of the lineup since before the Showcase. The good news is that medical reports have him returning to the lineup sooner than anticipated however a date has not yet been set. The team will also be without Jonny Evans for at least tonight’s game. Evans took a stick in the face during practice resulting in some thankfully minor damage, but it means he misses tonight and potentially Sunday too.
In net, expect Mitch Adamyk to go this evening against Prince George.
Key for the Kings this weekend will be recapturing their offence that deserted them Saturday and Sunday with just one goal in 120 minutes. The powerplay in particular needs to re-find its mojo as the Kings scored just twice on 21 outings during the weekend road trip. Saturday’s game in Vernon where the Kings fell 2-0…that snapped a string of 5 straight games with at least one powerplay goal…going 9/29 in that stretch.
At the Rink
A big game on Friday night as the Kings welcome Royal LePage Powell River for their annual Tail Gate party and prize giveaway. There will be a by-donation BBQ outside before the game, with lots of raffles and prizes win as well. The first 200 adults through the doors get a free $5 50/50 ticket too courtesy of Villani and Co, and Underwriters Insurance.
On the Broadcast
We’ll go live at 6:45 tonight on 95.7 CoastFM and HockeyTV. In the pre-game show we’ll talk with Kings Head Coach Kent Lewis, along with Spruce Kings bench boss Adam Maglio. In the first intermission, Kings captain Gavin Rauser, defenceman Nathan Kelly and forward Mitch Williams will all be featured. In the 2nd break, former Spruce Kings Head Coach, Powell River assistant coach and current Kings Board of Directors member Chad van Diemen.
📻: http://radioplayer.vistaradio.ca/cfpw/
📺: http://www.hockeytv.com
