Bryan Allbee was nine years old living at home in Prince George when the Prince George Spruce Kings suffered a first-round playoff exit two months before they were due to host the 2007 Royal Bank Cup junior A hockey national championship.
Now, with his Chilliwack Chiefs one loss away from being ousted from the B.C. Hockey League playoffs, the 20-year-old defenceman is prepared to do what it takes to avoid that scenario and have to wait eight long weeks between games when the Chiefs take their turn as RBC Cup hosts, May 12-21.
To avoid that misery and stave off elimination the Chiefs are going to have to beat the Spruce Kings tonight in Chilliwack and, if they get the chance, Sunday night in Prince George (both scheduled for 7 p.m. starts). The Chiefs fell into that predicament Thursday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena when Spruce Kings winger Ben Brar scored 8:45 into overtime to seal a 3-2 win in Game 5 of the best-of-seven Mainland Division semifinal series.
Now the Chiefs find themselves in must-win territory and a big crowd is expected tonight at Prospera Centre to try to see their team through that Spruce King obstacle.
"We really hope the fans in Chilliwack come out and support us but we have to do it for ourselves right now," said Allbee. "No one wants to go home early. We want to make this run and go all the way and get through the front door to RBC and we'll just keep pushing and take care of home ice and bring it back for Game 7."
Allbee fired in a point shot through a screen to open the scoring in Game 5 in the first period, his second goal of the series. The Chiefs led twice in the game but each time the Spruce Kings found a way to tie it up. Kings defenceman Dylan Anhorn said his team fed off playing at home and they didn't pout when Brar's apparent go-ahead goal in the third period on a two-man advantage with about seven minutes left was disallowed due to incidental contact with Chiefs goalie Daniel Chenard.
"We have home-ice advantage with such a great regular season - we wanted to come out with more speed and compete (level) and I think we did that, for sure, and it showed in the shots and the scoreboard at the end," said Anhorn. "We made sure to refuel after the third period with lots of water and lots of sugars and lots of food to recharge and it showed with the amount of energy we came out with. We came out really hot in overtime."
Three of the five games in the series have been decided by one goal and two of those games went to OT. The teams each posted shutouts in the first two games at RMCA - Chilliwack won the opener 3-0 and the Kings rebounded with a 2-0 win.
Kyle Johnson's power-play goal tied Game 5 in the second period - the first time in the series the Kings connected with the extra man. That comes as no real surprise. They've struggled all season on the power play, ranking last in the BCHL in the regular season with a 13.5 success rate. They're now 1-for-20 in the playoffs, scoring at a five per cent clip. The Chiefs are somewhat better, going 2-for-14 (14.3 per cent). Each team has one shorthanded goal.
"It was good to see (Johnson) score, we've had some really good chances and (the Chiefs have) done a good job on the kill, they close quick," said Kings head coach Adam Maglio. "We finally executed what we've been trying to work on and it was well deserved. We needed one for sure and I thought we did a good job on the kill too."
Maglio mixed up his lines to try to stimulate some offence. With top-line centre Ben Poisson out for the season with a ruptured spleen and veteran forward Blake Hayward suspended for the next two games for an illegal hit in Game 3, Maglio has had to be a little creative with his forward combinations and on Thursday it appeared he'd conjured some magic having Johnson centre a line with Brar and Nolan Welsh. Johnson had a goal and two assists in his best game of the series and his line was in on two of the three goals. Goals have come at a premium throughout the series and a game like Thursday's should do wonders for Johnson's confidence, which has wavered at times this season.
"It's just two good teams going at it," said the 19-year-old Johnson. "Neither team is going to give an inch and they're both resilient and leading into the next game we're going to have to keep that at the front of our minds.
"We know that they can feed off their crowd, too. They're a passionate city for their team and we need to do our best to neutralize that early. We need to come out much like we did (in Game 5) with that kind of a start and that kind of a long effort."
Goaltending has been great at either end throughout the series and the two puckstoppers from Ontario - Chenard and Kings' Evan DeBrouwer - have played as well as can be expected as they try to get their teams into the second round against the Surrey Eagles, who eliminated Langley on Friday night with a 5-4 OT win.
"Throughout the season in our eight-game series (with the Chiefs) all the games were really low-scoring and really tight with two great goaltenders and two great defensive hockey teams so I would expect it to continue to be that and hopefully we can finish it in Chilliwack," said Anhorn.
"Obviously the travel will be difficult but we've dealt that all season so we think we've got the upper hand there."
