After an impressive opening two weeks of the season, yielding a league-leading 27 goals scored, the Powell River Kings will join the 16 other BCHL franchises at the Bauer BCHL Showcase in Chilliwack this weekend. The event kicked off on Wednesday and runs through until Sunday afternoon with each team playing a pair of neutral site games. Both games count for regular season points, however the main purpose of the Showcase is to expose the league and its players to the hundreds of college and pro scouts that come to the event.
For the Kings, they face a tough schedule in both opponents and game times, however it’s actually significantly better than in years previous. The Kings will face the Vernon Vipers on Friday afternoon at 1:00pm, before turning around a few hours later and tackling the Trail Smoke Eaters at 10:00am on Saturday morning.
Here’s your game notes for the weekend, and a look at both the Trail Smoke Eaters and Vernon Vipers:
The Showcase is a unique atmosphere for players. Outside of the games involving the home town Chiefs, there aren’t a whole lot of fans in the building. The 5000 seat building is largely empty with very little cheering from the seats. It means teams need to manufacture their own atmosphere by getting a good start early. You won’t “take the crowd out of the game”, but you’ll get on a roll that is a bit tougher to do without 1000 fans behind you.
Players also need to put the Showcase meaning out of their heads. Instead of fans and kids banging on the glass, the seats are dotted with scouts and clipboards. Those scouts and clipboards are dissecting every player, looking for the next graduating class member or the next draft pick. It is important for players (and staff) to focus on the task at hand, and that’s four points on offer…let the other stuff take care of itself.
Finally for the Showcase, it’s an event that the Kings have done well at in the past. The Kings are 6-2-0-2 lifetime at the event, which sits them 4th amongst teams in terms of win percentage at the event. (note: Wenatchee in 2nd are 3-0-0-1, having played in just two showcase events opposed to the 5 that have been held). The Kings are behind Penticton (10-0), Wenatchee and West Kelowna (8-2). Big thanks to Trevor Miller, the voice of the Warriors, for those numbers.
On the ice, the Kings have been very impressive so far. Yes there have been blips on the radar and certainly there will be a fair bit of discussion on Saturday’s 9-7 win in Cowichan, however given the Kings 0-4 start last season, to take 7 of 8 points in their first four games this season is a big step forward.
While not the greatest technically, Saturday’s game proved that this Kings team can be very dangerous offensively. Against both Victoria and Nanaimo where the Kings put up 8 and 9 goals in lopsided scorelines, both teams had effectively shut down against the Kings late in the game, helping inflate the score a bit. Cowichan showed no quit, but the Kings had the offence to get the job done. Focus from that will be shoring up the defensive lapses that allowed Cowichan to capitalise (no pun intended) on mistakes the Kings made.
Offensively, the Kings lead the league in goals for, shots on goal and goals scored per game among other stat categories. And while Saturday’s 7 goals against hurt the stat line, the team is still 6th in goals against per game, and 3rd in shots against per game. Again, not a bad start.
Expect Mitch Adamyk between the posts for the Kings for at least one game this weekend. The second year netminder missed last weekend on the Island with a minor lower body injury. The team used the weekend to rest Mitch, leaving him in Powell River and giving Matteo Paler-Chow both starts. Also expect Ben Raffler to make an appearance this weekend. He was on the trip to Nanaimo and Cowichan, but also dealing with a minor lower body injury. Kyle Kawamura missed Saturday in Duncan, however he’s fully expected to be available this weekend.
Missing from the lineup will be Callum Volpe, who is dealing with a minor lower body injury.
About the Vernon Vipers (Friday 1:00pm)
The Vipers had started the year a perfect 4-0, the only team to do that so far (Penticton is also undefeated, however has only played 2 games), before running into Alberni at the Showcase last night. The Bulldogs and Vipers skated to a 1-1 tie through 70 minutes in a Thursday night affair.
Vernon, like the Kings have been very good offensively are are 4th (behind Prince George and Nanaimo) in goals scored this year. Impressively, they’re 2nd in goals against, however 1st placed Penticton have played half the number of games.
What sticks out when you look at Vernon’s stat line however is the amount of special teams time the team has had to kill. They lead the BCHL in PIM’s with 74, a stark contrast to the Kings 34 through the same number of games. Vernon has been shorthanded 22 times this year compared to the Kings 7, but they’re 19/22 (86.4%) while the Kings are 5/7 (71.4%).
While talking shorthanded, both teams have scored a pair of shorties this year through four games. PG is the only other team to score shorthanded this year so far…also with two.
Offensively the team is led by 3rd year Viper Jimmy Lambert who has 8 points in 4 games thus far. He’s just under a point per game pace through his BCHL career, and could eclipse that with a good season this year. Behind him is 3rd year Viper Brett Stapley, former Chief Jesse Lansdell and 2001-born Alex Swetlikoff. The Vipers also picked up former Bulldog forward Jordan Sandhu in the off-season…a small, shifty forward who played well against the Kings.
17 players have at least a point on the Vipers roster. 18 for the Kings.
Defensively, Michael Ufberg, Shane Kelly, Sol Seibel and Chris Jandric are all returning defencemen who bring a good blend of size, puck movement and experience. In net, the Vipers have 20-year-old goalie, and former Wenatchee Wild standout Anthony Yamnitsky to backstop the team. He went 31-7 last season with the Wild with a 2.23 GAA and .895 save percentage. Ty Taylor is in year two of his apprenticeship in net, having backed up last year. It gives Vernon two solid and experienced options in goal.
Vernon are 4-3-1-2 at the Showcase. They play their other game at the event on Thursday evening, the late contest against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs at 7:30pm.
About the Trail Smoke Eaters (Saturday 10:00am)
Trail is a team that the Kings frequently run into at the Showcase. Last year the Kings beat the Smokies 5-2 to complete a sweep at the annual event. In 2014, the Smokies got the best of the Kings 4-3 in overtime. This will be the third matchup between the two teams at this event.
Trail has gotten off to a solid 2-1-0-1 start. The team lost a much anticipated home opener to West Kelowna on September 8th, but got revenge up in Kelowna the following evening by spoiling the Warriors opener 4-0. A narrow loss in Trail was follwed up by a one goal win in Salmon Arm against the winless Silverbacks. 3 of the four games Trail have played have been settled by a goal.
Trail’s other game at the Showcase is against the Surrey Eagles, at 4:00pm on Sunday afternoon. The Smokies are 4-6 at the event lifetime, tied for 12th in win percentage.
There are a lot of veteran names on a Smokies roster with a revamped outlook. New owners in the off season and plenty of changes for the better will no doubt make Trail an easier place to recruit to, and in terms make them a more intimidating force in a very competitive Interior division that already features Penticton, Wenatchee and Vernon as the “big three”. Ross Armour and Kale Howarth are both BCHL vets and lead the Smokies in scoring through their opening 4 games. Jeremy Lucchini is a multi-year player on the back end to provide some veteran leadership.
In goal, Trail leans on a pair of BCHL rookies between the pipes. Brandon Wells is the on-paper starter, having gone in 3 of the Smokies 4 games so far. He’s 1-2 with a 2.26 GAA and .915 sv%. Impressive numbers early in the season. His lone win was a 21 save shutout of the Warriors. Tanner Marshall as the other Trail win this season, their last outing in Salmon Arm on Saturday night. He stopped 51 shots in that game.
With the results the team has had so far, Trail sit middle of the pack in the offensive stats category. They’ve scored 13 and conceded 10…2nd and 4th in the Interior Division. The team’s powerplay has hit 5 times on 18 attempts (27.8%), while the penalty kill is 8th in the BCHL, allowing 3 goals on 18 times out (83.3%). The Smokies so far have done a bulk of their scoring in the 2nd period with 6 goals for and against in the middle frame.
Broadcast Information
Both Games will be live on 95.7 CoastFM and HockeyTV beginning 20 minutes prior to opening faceoff both days. Highlights through the weekend will be alumni interviews with former Kings Adam Brubacher and Jarid Lukosevicius. Also featured will be reigning BCHL Player of the Week Carter Turnbull.
Due to the short turnaround between games, there will be no post-game interview with Brock Sawyer following the contest. However Brock and I will do a live, extended video postgame on the team’s social media channels shortly after the game.
