Wins in the B.C. Hockey League have been hard to come by this season for the Prince George Spruce Kings. It doesn't get any easier this weekend when they close out the calendar year with road games in Nanaimo, Cowichan Valley and Langley.
All of those teams have winning records and the Spruce Kings will be hard-pressed to make any gains in the standings. Having won just eight of 34 games, the Kings rank 16th out of 17 teams and with four key regulars on the injured list, the odds are stacked against them.
The bus stops in Nanaimo tonight, where the Kings (8-24-0-2) play the Island-Division-leading Clippers (22-12-0-1) for the second time in two weeks. Led by top-line forwards Sheldon Rempal, Devin Brosseau and Matthew Hoover, the Clippers have the second-most potent offence in the league. That line was responsible for four of the five goals the Clippers scored in their 5-2 victory over the Spruce Kings at the Coliseum, Dec. 4. Rempal leads the BCHL scoring race with 37 goals and 73 points in 35 games.
"We just have to play a good game and try to hold their top scorers at bay," said Spruce Kings head coach Chad van Diemen. "They're a good team with one of the best lines in our league so that's the task we have to try to minimize their opportunities. Obviously, defence and goaltending is going to be a big part of that."
Already reeling from the loss of top-line forwards Jake LeBrun (broken clavicle) and Braiden Epp (knee sprain), the Kings will also be missing 19-year-old defencemen Alex Stoley and Ryan Fritz. Both are out with upper-body injuries. Van Diemen said the team will have help this weekend from its affiliated players.
Sam Tanguay, the Kings 20-year-old goaltender, will be back in the lineup this weekend after missing one game last weekend with a head injury. Tanguay and McCloskey know the pressure is on them to bail out a team that has scored just 79 goals in 34 games, the league's lowest goal total.
"It makes it tough to win games when it seems that each game your goaltenders want goals back, at least one a game, and you don't get those back," said van Diemen. "You've got to make saves and limit our goals against."
The Kings are coming off consecutive losses at home to Chilliwack, 7-3 and 6-1, after starting their four-game homestand with a 6-4 win over Coquitlam. Despite the one-sided losses to Chilliwack, the Mainland Division leaders, Diemen said he liked the spirit his team showed, even when the outcome was no longer in doubt.
"There was a bit more life on the bench and in the dressing room, it was a lot better than it has been in the past -- the emotion was a lot better," said van Diemen. "Prior to that homestand we had a lot of flat games with not a lot of emotion where we lose games. The guys took it a bit more personally."
The Kings will be in Duncan Saturday to play the Cowichan Valley Capitals, then wrap up their trip with a game in Langley against the Express Sunday afternoon. Cowichan Valley beat the Kings 5-2 at the Coliseum Oct. 2. The Kings have yet to defeat the Express this season. Langley won 5-0 in the first meeting Sept. 19 and 4-1 on Nov. 26. Both were played in Langley.
Heading into the weekend, Cowichan Valley (17-12-2-3) holds down second place in the Island Division while Langley (18-13-1-0) ranks third in the Mainland Division.
Following the game in Langley, the players will go home for the Christmas break and will be back in Prince George for practice Dec. 29. Their first games in 2016 are Jan 2-3 in Coquitlam and Langley.
The Kings have 25 games left this season and are 15 points out of a playoff position. But van Diemen says there's still no reason for anybody on his team to play with any less desire than if they were a first-place team -- not with college scouts watching from the stands.
"The guys have to be fairly self-motivated," he said. "They're competitive people and you want to go in every game and play well. You try and stay positive and stick to the game plan and at the end of the night if everyone in the dressing room has a good game and is satisfied with the way they've played you have a good chance at team success.
"As a staff, you just try to build off a lot of small things. You set goals for a period at a time and we have a number of goals you try to tick off during the game. The more of those you achieve, the greater the chances of team success."
