How long can this go on?
That's a question the Prince George Spruce Kings have to be asking after suffering yet another defeat Saturday in Quesnel.
Losing 4-2 to the Quesnel Millionaires knocked the Kings into the B.C. Hockey League dungeon as they dipped one point below the Merritt Centennials.
The Spruce Kings are last overall in the league and losers of 14 of 16 games. They rank last overall in attendance, and the coaching staff has been stuck with a litany of injuries that started in the preseason and are still troubling the team -- can it get any worse?
The game in Quesnel marked the season debut of Kings goalie Alex Wright, making his first start since he ended last season as a member of the Prince George Cougars. The Mills scored on their first shot on Wright, 31 seconds into the game, when Spencer Graboski broke down the wing and his shot went in off Wright's glove. Before the game was five minutes old, Justin Hogan had the Mills ahead 2-0.
"We had a good start with the face-off win but when the first shot goes in that's not a good thing," said Wright. "I thought I played pretty well and had lots of fun with lots of shots and made a couple big saves. We came back and were pretty close but in the end we couldn't pull it off.
"After we got scored on we tried to battle back and I think that paid off a bit. I thought the guys played pretty well. We weren't getting too many quality chances on goal but that team knew their (shorter) rink pretty well and they used it to their advantage."
RJay Berra cut the lead to 2-1 with his 10th of the season late in the first period but Clayton Chessa popped one more past Wright with seven seconds left in the period to restore the two-goal cushion.
"Ed (head coach Dempsey) and I talked to the guys before the game about the importance of getting off to a good start in that arena," said Kings assistant coach Tom Bohmer. "They still have some guys left over from that playoff run and they understood the importance of that game and kind of got the jump on us a bit.
"But after the smoke cleared we actually settled down and played a pretty structured game in there. We managed to get it to within one goal and then kind of fell victim to some moldy calls from the officiating standpoint."
Faiz Khan connected on a Prince George power play to make it 3-2 and Daryl DeVries completed the scoring 19:24 into the second period on a Quesnel power play, a goal the Kings thought should not have counted.
"An interference call that was clearly just a finished check from (Kings defenceman Trevor) Esau puts us down 5-on-3," said Bohmer. "Then there was a loose puck in front of the net that Wright clearly had had for what seemed like six or seven seconds and they don't blow it down and keep jamming away and it finds the end of the net, and it ends up being the story."
The Kings (2-12-0-2) were outshot 36-24. The loss was their fifth straight as their road record fell to 0-6-0-1. Prince George hosts Powell River on Wednesday at the Coliseum.
In Quesnel, the Spruce Kings were without the services of D Bennett Hambrook (ankle injury) and F Jujhar Khaira (attending a family funeral). The 16-year-old Khaira has been a key addition for the Kings, with five goals and 10 assists in 15 games as a rookie.
"This is the worst experience I've ever gone through with the injury bug, we seem to have every injury known to man on that squad," said Bohmer. "Obviously we have to get healthy and having Alex back there in goal really stabilized things. He made some key saves for us that gave a chance to get back in the game."
n The Spruce Kings have acquired F Trent Murdoch and D Byron Sorensen, both 19-year-olds, in a trade from the Alberni Valley Bulldogs for F Liam Darragh. Darragh, a 20-year-old from Quesnel, was released last week from the Portland Winterhawks. The Spruce Kings acquired rights to Darragh in the Jan. 10 deal that sent defenceman Wes McLeod to the Spruce Grove Saints of the AJHL Murdoch, an 18-goal scorer last season as a rookie with the Bulldogs, had two goals and one assists in eight games this season.
