Last year in the BCHL playoffs the Chilliwack Chiefs made it extremely difficult for the Prince George Spruce Kings, pushing them to brink of elimination in the first round before losing to the Kings in Game 7.
What a difference a season makes.
The Spruce Kings destroyed the Chiefs 8-0 Monday night in front of a near-capacity crowd of 1,697 at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Mainland Division final series.
It was the second lopsided win for Kings in the series and they will have a chance to sweep the Chiefs when they return to the same rink for Game 4 tonight.
Ben Poisson's natural hat trick inspired the Kings to their seventh win in eight playoff games so far. They scored five power-play goals and the score was a true reflection of how decisively they manhandled the Chiefs.
"The series isn't over yet but certainly our group has played extremely well and really buckled down against a good Chilliwack team, I mean they won our league for a reason," said Kings general manager Mike Hawes.
"Our group has really hit their stride right now and they're peaking at the right time and really doing a good job and we saw that tonight."
The Kings returned nearly half the roster from last year's team that came up just three wins shot of winning the BCHL championship, while just five Chefs players in their lineup Monday were with the team that lost to Prince George but came back to win the RBC Cup junior A national championship as the host team.
"We did well in the playoffs last year and it was hard road for us and they absolutely learned a ton, they learned what it takes to win in the playoffs," said Hawes. "It's a different brand of hockey and everybody needs to be committed to the one goal and I know for sure we are."
Logan Neaton picked up his second shutout of the series, stopping 13 shots as his team outshot the Chiefs 46-13.
The Spruce Kings came out bashing bodies and could not have asked for a better start. Lucas Vanroboys took a puck left for him at the ringette line by linemate Nolan Welsh and had a free pass to the net, finishing with a backhand deke on goalie Daniel Chenard with just 3:47 off the clock.
Twenty-seven seconds after the goal, Chiefs winger Cole Donhauser got caught his stick in the face of Patrick Cozzi and was sent off for four minutes for a double minor. The first penalty was down to the last 10 seconds when Layton Ahac took advantage of the screen in front of Chenard and let go a low snapshot that caught the net to the far side.
Before the second penalty had expired, Welsh dug the puck out of a crowd in the slot to feed Ben Poisson and he ripped a shot in for his sixth of the playoffs. The Kings captain made it a 4-0 count on another Kings; power play when he teed off on Ahac's perfect feed into the face-off circle. Chenard had no chance of stopping that rocket.
"Ben has been an absolute stud for us here, he was champing at bit at the start of the playoffs because he missed the majority of it last year (with a spleen injury)," said Hawes. "He's been such a good leader, leading the way offensively and in both ends of the ice."
The Kings applied relentless pressure in the second period and continued to overwhelm their opponents, outskating with an aggressive style that led to more turnovers. Like the one Nick Poisson caused 13 minutes into the third period. He gained the puck on the right wing and set up his older brother in the slot to complete the hat trick with a hard shot into the top corner.
Ahac, expected to go high in the NHL draft in June, had a half-dozen scouts watching his every move from their perches in the rink Monday and he gave another box for them to check off on the Kings' sixth goal. The 17-year-old defenceman sped into the corner with the puck and just before he was about to go behind the net he put the puck right on the blade of Welsh's stick in front for his first of the playoffs.
Nick Bochen cashed in a two-man advantage to make it 7-0 heading into the second intermission. The shots were 32-10 after 40 minutes. That spelled the end of the night for Chenard, replaced by Nolan Hildebrand to start the third period. Jay Keranen's power-play goal was the only goal Hildebrand would allow on the 14 shots he faced.
The Kings put themselves in position to sweep the series when they topped the Chiefs twice in their own barn, 7-0 and 3-2 on the weekend.
The Poisson brothers and defenceman Max Coyle, with his first of the playoffs, scored for the Kings Saturday in their one-goal victory. Harrison Blaisdell and Kevin Wall replied for the Chiefs in that one.
Chilliwack (42-15-1-0) finished with a league-best 85 points, one more than the Spruce Kings (39-13-1-5), and that gave the Chiefs the right to host the first two games of the series. Aside from brief stretches of Game 2, the Chiefs have failed to find the form that made them so difficult to beat throughout the season. They haven't been able to match the Spruce Kings speed and it's obvious the Kings, who played 24 playoff games last year in their run to the league final are leaning on their depth and experience to crank up their intensity up to a new level.
The Mainland champions will advance to the Coastal Conference championship series against the Island champion., either the Victoria Grizzlies or Powell River Kings. The Grizzlies took a 2-1 lead in that best-of-seven affair with a 5-0 win Monday night in Powell River.
