After seven tough physical games of in-your-face hockey while dispatching the Chilliwack Chiefs in the first round of the B.C. Hockey League playoffs, the Prince George Spruce Kings found themselves in a much different situation Friday night to start Round 2 against the Surrey Eagles.
Pushed to the edge of survival against the Chiefs, Friday's 9-1 thrashing of the Eagles was a holiday on ice by comparison.
The Spruce Kings totally dominated every aspect of the game and the lopsided score was a true reflection as they outshot the Eagles 51-15 to draw first blood in the best-of-seven series.
Defenceman Liam Watson-Brawn had the most productive game of his two-season BCHL career with two goals and two assists. Kyle Johnson and Sam Anzai also scored twice. Patrick Cozzi had a goal and two assists, and Jay Keranen and Dustin Manz also scored. Jackson Ross had the lone Eagles goal.
"We expected it to be a different series, more offensive, but we were not expecting a 9-1 win - it was really nice to get though," said Cozzi.
"We had a really good start and that was the difference from the last series and we just carried it on the whole game."
Evan DeBrouwer stood tall in the Prince George nets and had a relatively easy night, stopping 14 of the 15 shots to post his fifth win of the playoffs.
"We just have to shoot the puck more and it shows when we get shots we produce more and score more goals," said Watson-Brawn.
"That Chilliwack series, they played us really hard and we were used to getting played hard and just took advantage of that.
"Evan played amazing, like he usually does, but it was nice to take the weight off him because we usually lean pretty hard on him. They're going to come out much harder tomorrow and it's going to be a completely different game."
Most of the first period was played in the Surrey end and that was reflected on the shot clock and the scoreboard. Watson-Brawn got it going 3:25 into the game with a point shot that found the net behind goalie Mario Cavaliere with Cozzi obstructing his view. Then at 5:58, the Kings defenceman collected his second of the game and third of the playoffs, letting go a wristshot from the ringette line that went in off Cavaliere's arm.
The Kings peppered the Surrey net with 18 shots while allowing just five in the opening period. But the visitors did manage a couple of good scoring chances and one of them found the back of the net. Ty Westgard won the offensive zone draw and the puck came back to the point for Ross, who let go a high wrister for his first goal of the playoffs, 7:37 into the opening period.
Cavaliere was under siege after the first minute and appeared to be fighting the puck a bit at the start of the period but settled in and made the saves he had to which kept it a one-goal game heading into the first break.
The Spruce Kings continued to dominate in the second period and restored their two-goal led with a power-play goal. Cozzi took the puck on the fly to gain the zone and eventually got the puck again on the left wing side but lost control and it skipped off his stick right to Johnson, who fired it in from a sharp angle.
Johnson made it a 4-1 game late in the period, a play that started when he won the face-off in the Surrey zone. Chong Min Lee got the puck while standing just off the post and spotted Johnson breaking for the net and hit his stick with the pass for an easy tap-in.
The Kings made it a blowout with five more goals in the third period, forcing a goaltending change after the sixth goal which brought Daniel Davidson into the game. Cozzi got it going 13 seconds into the period and Keranen, Manz and Anzai, with his pair, capped off the scoring.
Coming off a six-game series win over Langley last weekend, Eagles head coach Brandon West expected much more from his troops and was at a loss to explain why they failed to answer the bell Friday.
"That wasn't what the doctor ordered, that was a pretty poor effort from our group but the good thing is the sun will come up tomorrow and we'll get a chance to play another hockey game," said West. "You have to have a short memory. We'll get back tonight and watch the video and we'll have a meeting in the morning and go over everything and our guys will have to respond.
"Prince George was outstanding tonight, they won every race and every battle that was up against them and I thought our guys were stuck in the mud right for the get-go and we couldn't get our feet moving and we were victims of not being ready to play."
The Spruce Kings owned the puck for much of the game and some of the credit for that has to go to their centres who won a large percentage of the face-offs. The Kings rolled four lines and the No. 4 trio - Anzai-Brady Bjork-Spencer Chapman - earned every minute they got on the ice. The energy they brought resulted in the final two goals of the game.
Anzai scored his pair less than two minutes apart, ending a three-month scoring drought.
"It was good for the guys, they had a good week of practice and came out with a lot of energy and were hard on the puck," said Kings general manager Mike Hawes. "Surrey's a different team from Chilliwack and we had to make some adjustments and all that went well tonight. All season long our team prides itself on defence and we played that way tonight and capitalized on our opportunities and that was a bit of a difference from what we saw in the first series."
Game 2 of the series is tonight starting at 7 p.m. Game 3 and 4 will be played Monday and Tuesday in Surrey.
