The Prince George Spruce Kings got lightning strikes from their top forward line, and that led to a six-game series win over the Langley Rivermen.
But let's not forget the thunder.
While Michael Buonincontri, Chad Staley and Jeremiah Luedtke combined for 18 points in six games to lead the Spruce Kings in scoring, Jake LeBrun, Marco Ballarin and Cole Todd supplied the muscle that was a key factor in eliminating the Rivermen.
Thrown together just before the playoffs, the Kings trio earned the nickname Boomtown for its fearless physical tendencies and bone-crushing bodychecks. In Game 3 Friday, LeBrun, 19, a Prince George-born-and-bred, six-foot-one, 215 pound jackhammer on blades, gave the Kings a decided edge in the series when he rammed his shoulder into Rivermen forward Marcus Vela. The hit into the boards left Vela, their third-leading scorer, sidelined for the rest of the series.
In the same game, LeBrun made body contact with Gage Torrel, Langley's second-most productive pointgetter. Torrel left the ice and was done for the series. The Kings went on to clinch the series 4-2 to advance to the second round of the B.C. Hockey League playoffs, starting tonight in Chilliwack.
"They don't get the accolades but that was a huge part in turning the series in our favour," said Kings head coach Dave Dupas.
"With two clean checks Jake took two good players out of that series. They hadn't seen Jake or Marco the last two games of the season (because both were injured) and all of sudden you get two guys who can really be physical players together with Cole Todd on that one line and that really set the tone for us, that we weren't going to get pushed around any more."
The Kings eliminated Langley in Game 6 Tuesday 3-2 at the Coliseum to wrap up their first series win since they beat Salmon Arm in the first round of the 2005 BCHL playoffs. Now they have to find a way to keep that going against a more formidable opponent.
Chilliwack won the Mainland Division regular season title with a 37-17-1-3 record and finished 20 points ahead of the third-place Spruce Kings (27-34-1-6). The Chiefs edged the Kings in the regular season series, including four regulation time wins, two overtime wins and two losses.
"They come hard, they forecheck even harder than Langley does and they're faster than Langley, but we're fast too," said Kings defenceman Cole McCaskill.
"I think it will be a battle of speed, not so much a battle of fighting, like (the Langley series) was."
In the eight games head-to-head with Prince George the Chiefs scored 215 goals in 58 regular season games and allowed 184 for a +31 goal differential, much better than the Kings, who scored 195 times and gave up 213 goals for a -18 goal differential.
Statistics don't lie but they fail to point out the injury problems for much of the season that forced the Spruce Kings to scramble and bring in replacements from the major midget and junior B ranks. By the end of the regular season the Kings had more than 70 affiliated player games, by far the highest total in the BCHL.
Now that they are reasonably healthy again, the Kings are still underdogs but they hope to show the Chiefs a few new wrinkles on the ice that will give them the edge in the series. The Kings are still nursing a few injuries with defencemen Viktor Dombrovski (concussion) and Adam Clements (upper body) still on the shelf, as well as winger Jarryd Leung (wrist).
"We haven't done as well against Chilliwack as we had against Langley, but with that said, we were going down there sometimes with eight forwards and four defencemen so we haven't seen them with our full team yet," said Dupas.
Coached by Jason Tatarnic, who is also the GM, the Chiefs have plenty of firepower up front, starting with Jake Hand, a Lake Superior State recruit who leads the playoffs with 11 points. Chilliwack will also lean on the offensive abilities of University of Vermont-bound Craig Puffer; Tipper Higgins, who has signed to play in the NCAA next season with Army; and Abbotsford native Jordan Kawaguchi, who ranked second in team scoring with 28 goals and 56 points in 53 regular season games.
Bennett Morrison, Vincent Desharnais, Dennis Choholski and Eric Roberts form the core of Chilliwack's veteran-stacked blueline crew. Expect 20-year-old goalie David Jacobson to get most of the starts against the Kings.
Chilliwack's power play leads the BCHL in the playoffs, scoring on 37.5 per cent of their chances in the five-game series with Coquitlam, while the Chiefs' 80.95 per cent success rate in penalty killing ranks ninth in the league. The Spruce Kings are third-best at killing off penalties, working at a 87.18 per cent clip, while their power play ranks ninth in the playoffs, connecting on 13.89 per cent of their chances.
The penalty kill has been a bright spot for Prince George and a lot of the credit has to go to goalie Jesse Jenks. Jenks has played all six games of the playoffs and sports a 2.45 goals-against average and .918 save percentage.
"He's been a rock, he's been giving us a chance to win every single night," said Dupas. "Defensively, overall, we were much better (in Game 6) and the penalty kill was great for us. They sacrificed. Those guys are black and blue, they have puck marks all over them from blocking shots and they kept wanting to go out when there was a penalty coming up. Without that, we don't win the series."
Games 3 and 4 of the best-of-seven Mainland Division final are booked for the Coliseum on Monday and Tuesday. If the series is extended, games are scheduled for Friday, March 20 in Chilliwack, Saturday, March 21 in Prince George, with a seventh game, if needed, set for Sunday, March 22 in Chilliwack.
