Player introductions might be a necessity tonight for fans of the Prince George Spruce Kings when they finally get another chance to see their team in action in a home game at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Nearly a month has passed since they last played at home and tonight's game against the West Kelowna Warriors is the final home game of the regular season for the Spruce Kings.
With seven road games still ahead of them this month, the good news is the Spruce Kings have booked themselves a spot in the B.C. Hockey League playoffs, after missing the postseason dance last year.
The Kings (22-22-4-2) clinched at least fourth place in the Mainland Division Saturday while losing 7-3 loss to the Chiefs. That was made possible when the fifth-place Surrey Eagles lost 9-1 in Wenatchee.
"We were expecting to make the playoffs this year and it's not nice to clinch a playoff spot with a loss but considering how last year went, it's nice to bounce back and be back in the playoffs this year," said Spruce Kings head coach Chad van Diemen.
"The last home game we had (a 5-2 loss to Chilliwack Jan. 14, before a season-high crowd of 1,969) wasn't a good overall performance by us, so hopefully we can finish off our last regular season home game on a positive note as we look forward into March."
For ex-Warriors Brett Mennear, Tyler Anderson and Tanner Campbell this is their only chance to play at home against their old teammates from the team that won the RBC Cup national championship a year ago. Tonight's game is also a homecoming for Warriors forwards Braiden Epp, 20, and 18-year-olds forwards Cavin Tilsley and Chase Dubois. Epp and Tilsley were traded by the Spruce Kings to West Kelowna this season, while Dubois is a former Cariboo Cougar midget.
"Any time you get game with as much familiarity between the two teams, it's a big game," said van Diemen. "I don't think anyone coming into that building will not be fired up, so I expect to be a spirited affair."
Mennear, the Spruce Kings' captain, has exceeded expectations in his 20-year-old season. He's ranked fourth in the scoring race (25G-46A-71P) and also excels defensive zone and on faceoffs and deserves consideration in the league's most valuable player voting.
"He's been great for us, not just his production and his play on the ice but off the ice and in the dressing room, his day-to-day, you couldn't ask for much more from a guy coming into his 20-year-old year," said van Diemen.
While Campbell arrived in January last year, Mennear and Anderson both came to Prince George last summer, after celebrating an RBC Cup national championship with the Warriors. Anderson (17-26-43) has more goals than any other BCHL defenceman and is on a point-per-game pace since he arrived in the September trade which sent Epp to West Kelowna.
"Anderson has been a huge addition and really helped build that winning culture in the dressing room and he's another guy who does the right things and is totally capitalizing on all these extra minutes and power-play time and he's getting rewarded for that," said van Diemen.
"Tanner is one of the most skilled players in the league, it's just a matter of him piecing it together game by game and knowing the opposition. You can't play the same way against certain teams as you can against others. He can pull of some pretty impressive things on the ice, it's just matter of being consistent."
The Warriors (24-24-2-0) rank fourth in the Interior Division.
The Kings are going to be missing a few key players for tonight's game and their two-game set against the Eagles Saturday and Sunday in Surrey. Goalie Tavin Grant suffered a leg injury in Surrey but stayed in the game, a 9-0 whitewash of the Eagles, the first shutout of Grant's BCHL career. Aris Anagnostopoulos played the next two games, beating Langley 5-2 and losing to Chilliwack 7-3. He'll get his third-straight start tonight against the Warriors.
With Grant unavailable, Zach Wickson of the Cariboo Cougars major midget team will serve as the backup goalie tonight. Dawson Rodin (Aldergrove junior B) will back up Agnostopoulos in Surrey.
Kings winger Chong Hyun Lee is playing for his country in South Korea and the Euro Ice Hockey Challenge (EIHC) this weekend. The Kings are also without winger Ethan de Jong, who suffered a shoulder injury two weeks ago playing in the World Junior A Hockey Challenge. Winger Ben Poisson did not play Saturday in Chilliwack and will be out at least a week with an upper-body injury. Defenceman Bryan Allbee is sitting out the weekend with the flu.
Forward Jarin Sutton (Cariboo Cougars) and winger Rob Raju (100 Mile House junior B) have been called up for the weekend.
If the season ended today, the Spruce Kings would know they'd be starting the best-of-seven opening playoff round in Wenatchee. The Wild (38-8-4-0) owns the best record in the BCHL and are deadly on home ice (25-0-2-0), taking 52 of a possible 54 points. Wenatchee is five points ahead of second-place Chilliwack. Each team has eight games left.
There's only a remote possibility the Spruce Kings will catch Langley for third place. They're 11 points behind the Rivermen (27-16-5-2). Both teams have eight games remaining. The Rivermen have been one of the hottest teams in the league. They went 9-1 in January and have won two of three this month, including a 5-3 win over the Warriors.
"They're playing really good hockey right now and in order for us to catch them we'd have to pretty much win out and we'd need some help from (the Rivermen), which I don't anticipate," said van Diemen.
