Aside from the ski slopes of Mount Washington, snow is in short supply on Vancouver Island, and that suits the Prince George Spruce Kings just fine.
It just makes it easier for them to travel to the rinks in Victoria, Duncan and Nanaimo, where they will be playing B.C. Hockey League games this weekend.
The Spruce Kings begin their second last roadtrip of the season tonight in Victoria, where they take on the Island Division-leading Grizzlies (27-12-1-4) who are one point ahead of Powell River. Two of the Grizzlies triplets -- former Spruce Kings Myles and Gerry Fitzgerald -- are 1-2 in team scoring. Myles ranks third in the BCHL with 57 points in 42 games, including 19 goals, while Gerry has 26 goals and 52 points in just 35 games. Last week the Grizzlies added 20-year-old forward Travis Stephens, coming over in a trade for futures from Trail. He's fourth in Grizzlies scoring with 13 goals and 31 points.
"Victoria, percentage wise is the number one team in the league," said Kings head coach Dave Dupas. "They have a couple guys we know very well up here -- the Fitzgeralds -- and it's tough to beat that team any time. They beat us here 1-0 [on Oct. 5), and I thought we should have had better that night, so we'll go down there and give it our best."
The Kings (24-13-2-2) rank second in the Mainland Division, seven points behind first-place Langley with three games in hand over the Rivermen. Langley hosts Trail tonight, then travels to Surrey to play the Eagles on Saturday.
On Saturday the Kings play the Cowichan Valley Capitals (16-25-1-1) who rank fifth in the Island Division, then head to Nanaimo for a Sunday afternoon game against the third-place Clippers (21-21-1-1). The Clippers added two 20-year-olds before last Friday's trade deadline, acquiring F Luke Sandler from Surrey and D Shay Laurent from Chilliwack, both in exchange for future considerations.
"Nanaimo is a tough place to play and so is Cowichan," Dupas said. "All those teams are big and physical and we're going to have our work cut out for us to get any points on the road."
The Spruce Kings kept their roster mostly intact, aside from a swap of defencemen which sent 19-year-old Caleb Thompson to Chilliwack for 20-year-old Cooper Rush and futures. The six-foot-seven Rush suffered a strained MCL in the second period of the Jan. 5 game in Chilliwack and won't be available for another four weeks minimum.
