The final four. After two rounds of BCHL Playoff action, there are just four teams remaining in the postseason. On one side of the draw, the Trail Smoke Eaters take on the Wenatchee Wild, while on the other side the BCHL’s Battle Royale, the Royal Rumble, the Prince George Spruce Kings take on the Powell River Kings for a spot in the Fred Page Cup.
The season series between two inter-divisional teams was a brief two-gamer, and doesn’t tell us much on how these two teams will operate against each other in the playoffs. However on a wider look, both through the regular season and two rounds of the playoffs, we can get a better sense of this first ever playoff matchup (full schedule here) between these two Kings.
Here is a statistical look at the two teams through not only their brief 2 game season series, but the regular season as well.
Season Series
The two game season series was officially won by the Spruce Kings via them picking up three of a possible four points. The series opened up in Powell River with an entertaining 3-3 tie through 70 minutes, before the return leg in Prince George two months later saw Powell River dominate the game early, only to run out of gas at the end of a long weekend and concede four straight to drop a 4-2 decision.
October 20th | 3-3 Tie | Hap Parker Arena
January 21st | 4-2 Spruce Kings | Rolling Mix Concrete Arena
Prince George outscored the Kings 7-5 in the two contests, while the Kings outshot the Spruce Kings 61-58. Both games shot totals were heavily in favour of the home team, with a 42-21 margin at home for the Kings, and a 37-19 tally in Prince George. The small sample size provided some pretty lopsided special teams numbers as the Kings went 4/12, including all three on the powerplay on October 20th, while the Spruce Kings scored just twice on their 12 chances.
Through two rounds of the BC Hockey League playoffs, Prince George sit 3rd among remaining teams, and 7th overall with a 17.4% powerplay (8/46), while the Kings are 15th in the playoffs with a 10.8% efficiency. The Kings powerplay plummeted during their series against Victoria, failing to score on 17 opportunities.
The Offence
Unsurprisingly, it’s two familiar faces to lead the way offensively for the Kings in both the playoffs, AND against the Spruce Kings through the regular season. Carter Turnbull scored three goals in the two games, while Ben Berard scored once and assisted on three others. The pair also lead the Kings in playoff scoring with 15 and 14 points respectively, but perhaps most importantly, they each have three game winners.
Neal Samanski and Carmine Buono each join Turnbull and Berard with double digit points.
For Prince George, doing the damage against Powell River was Ethan deJong with two goals and two assists. He also leads the Spruce Kings in scoring with 15 points and is one of three players (Patrick Cozzi and Kyle Johnson) who have double digit points through the Spruce Kings 14 games thus far.
Through the playoffs both teams have scored 36 goals, however the Kings have done that in three less games. Prince George have fired off 412 shots in the playoffs so far, ahead of the Kings 382, but again done in three more games. Because of that, the Kings sit 2nd among remaining teams in shots for per game (35.55), while the Spruce Kings are 4th at 29.43.
The Defence
The blue line for Powell River has been a real strength this playoffs, especially in the second round series against the Victoria Grizzlies. The top four of Carmine Buono, Jack Long, Andy Stevens and Nathan Kelly expertly controlled and largely shut down Grizzlies superstar Alex Newhook and the rest of the Victoria big guns. The four were well supported by Ben Raffler, Callum Volpe and Sam Pouliot.
Statistically, the core was solid at both ends of the ice. Carmine Buono is 4th in the BCHL in defenceman scoring, while playing 25-30 minutes a night of shutdown hockey. He’s the only King to crack the top 20 in defenceman scoring and is 2nd behind Wenatchee’s Cooper Zech among active players.
Right behind him though is Liam Watson-Brawn who has an 8-way share of the goal scoring lead among defencemen with 3. Also in the top 20 for scoring on the Spruce Kings is Jay Keranen who sits 7th. The Spruce Kings also feature Layton Ahac, a smooth skating, good first-pass defenceman who is tough to beat. The Ohio State University commit is an 01 birth year, but logs a lot of minutes for Prince George.
As units in this playoffs, Prince George has been the stingier of the two defensively, giving up just 25.86 shots per game, compared to the Kings 33.55. In fact, among the final four in the BCHL, Powell River has given up the most shots per game in the playoffs to date.
Goaltending
Barring a sudden and unexpected change of heart from the Kings staff, expect Matteo Paler-Chow to continue to carry the mail for the Powell River Kings. Even with Derek Krall up as an affiliate and Mitch Adamyk close to returning from injury, the Kings rookie netminder has been sublime in the playoffs. After a two month layoff due to injury was delayed another couple of games thanks to food poisoning, Paler-Chow has hands down been the best King on most nights. Paler-Chow’s 2.13 goals against average is 2nd among active players, while his .935 save percentage puts him alone at the top.
For Prince George, it’s Evan DeBrouwer that has gone the distance (and then some) in his team’s 14 games so far. He’s backup up that faith by backstopping the Spruce Kings to an 8-6 record, including a pair of game 7 wins on home ice. DeBrouwer leads active BCHL goaltenders with a 2.04 goals against average and is right behind Paler-Chow in save percentage at .919. DeBrouwer also has two shutouts this playoffs, including a 4-0 win over the Surrey Eagles in game 7 to the Spruce Kings to the third round for the first time ever.
While the Kings have some options and question marks on backing up due to injury, both Derek Krall and Mitch Adamyk could be available during this series. Adamyk played both games against the Spruce Kings, going 0-1-1, a 3.28GAA and .879sv%. DeBrouwer also played both games in the regular season, 1-0-1, 2.31GAA and a .918sv%.
Special Teams
The Kings found struggles on the powerplay in their second round series against the Victoria Grizzlies, and their overall percentages suffered because of it. 0/16 against the Victoria Grizzlies plummeted the Kings powerplay efficiency to 10.8% and last in the BCHL among active teams. Against the Spruce Kings this season, the Kings found success. 33.33% on the powerplay in a couple of games.
For everything the powerplay wasn’t against Victoria, the penalty kill was, and has been for the Kings over recent weeks. An 85.7% kill rate in the playoffs is a big improvement on the team’s regular season numbers and has them leading the league among active teams. The Kings surrendered only 2 powerplay goals against Victoria in round 2, both in game 5. Against Prince George, the Kings were 83.33%.
The Spruce Kings have conceded 11 powerplay goals in 14 games, and have been shorthanded 54 times which is most in the BCHL. Those numbers don’t defer too much from the regular season, with PG being the third most shorthanded team in the BCHL through 58 games. The wrinkle is that their 79.6% penalty kill is a far cry from the 3rd best kill in the regular season at 84.9%.
Overall Season
The Prince George Spruce Kings won the Mainland Division with a record of 33-17-4-4, 74 points. The Spruce Kings ran away with the Mainland Division title in the final weeks of the season, finishing 11 points clear of 2nd placed Langley. The Kings finished 3rd with a record of 29-19-4-6, 68 points.
