The Prince George Spruce Kings won't be at full strength when they line up to play the Coquitlam Express tonight in Coquitlam.
Two of the Spruce Kings' veteran forwards, centre Kyle Johnson and right winger Chong Hyun Lee, will be busy representing their respective countries.
Johnson, an 18-year-old Yale University recruit for 2017-18, is in Bonnyville, Alta., playing for Canada West at the 2016 World Junior A Hockey Challenge, while Lee, a native of South Korea, is in Gdansk, Poland, competing in the Euro Ice Hockey Challenge.
The Spruce Kings are still adjusting to life without high-scoring left winger Jamie Huber, who left the team a week ago to return to his home in Ontario. Huber was the Kings' second-leading scorer, with 11 goals and 27 points in 29 games and had been playing on the top scoring line with centre Brett Mennear and Lee.
Those three vacancies create opportunities for the nine remaining forwards and two affiliate player call-ups the Kings will have with them on the road this weekend in what will be a busy schedule with three games in less than three days. On Saturday night the Kings will be in Duncan to play the Cowichan Valley Capitals, then will head to Victoria to face the Grizzlies Sunday afternoon at 1. They'll have a week off at Christmas before they get back to Prince George for a practice on Wednesday Dec. 28.
"It's a lot of added icetime for some guys who can hopefully step up and capitalize on some extra minutes," said Spruce Kings head coach Chad van Diemen.
The Spruce Kings (15-12-2-2) have dropped down to fourth place in the Mainland Division, having been leapfrogged by the Langley Rivermen (15-14-3-2) who now hold a one-point edge. The Kings have three games in hand over Langley and tonight they will be playing the Express (6-25-1-2), the worst team in the BCHL. In four games this season against Coquitlam the Kings have three wins and a tie.
"We've got to play a smart game, manage the puck and just limit their chances," said van Diemen. "When we've played our game against them we've had some success so hopefully we can go in there and do that again and start the trip on a good note."
Heading into the weekend, Cowichan Valley (18-14-2-2) ranks third in the Island Division, 10 points behind division-leading Victoria (22-6-3-3). The Spruce Kings beat Cowichan Valley 5-4 back in September and lost 4-1 to Victoria Dec. 2.
"Cowichan's been a little up and down but they're a good team with good goaltending and experience up front and on the back end and they really lean on those older guys," said van Diemen. "It's going to be a good test for sure in a tough building.
"Victoria doesn't give up a lot of goals and they have a pretty potent offence with some guys who can put the puck in the net if you give them chances."
Ryan Stack, a 16-year-old who plays for the Burnaby Winter Club elite prospects team, will be available to the Kings for the games tonight and Sunday, while Chong Min Lee (the 17-year-old brother of Chong Hyun Lee), who plays for the junior B Port Moody Panthers, will be in the Kings' lineup Saturday to face the Capitals.
With Huber gone and the elder Lee not available, Mennear will be centring a line with Ben Brar and Ethan de Jong. Mennear has 42 points, including 15 goals, and is 10th in the BCHL scoring race.
Goalie Stefan Wornig is still undergoing tests at his home in Surrey to determine the cause of an internal condition that causes chronic muscle cramping and the 19-year-old won't be available until after the break. Winger Tanner Campbell is still out with a neck injury.
In Wornig's absence this weekend, Dawson Rodin, an 18-year-old goalie for the Aldergrove Kodiaks, will back up Tavin Grant in goal.
"You never like to see a goalie down with an injury (or illness) but I think Tavin's done a pretty good job of taking the ball and running with it," said van Diemen. "He was really sharp in the two games against Langley and hopefully he will continue to build off that and gain confidence as he goes."
The 20-year-old Lee opened the EIHC tournament Thursday with two assists in a 6-5 overtime loss to host Poland. South Korea will face Kazakhstan today and Ukraine on Saturday.
After a 6-2 win over Switzerland and a 5-3 loss to Russia, Canada West was eliminated from title contention Wednesday night in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Czech Republic in the quarterfinal round. Johnson had one assist in the game against Russia.
Grizzlies starting goalie Mathew Galajda is also playing for Canada West and was in net in their loss to the Czechs. In that game, Tomas Havranek scored on Galajda with 1.5 seconds left in regulation time to tie it. After overtime settled nothing, Kristian Reichel scored the only goal of the shootout to send the Czechs to the semifinal round. They went on to lose 2-1 in overtime to Canada East Thursday night. United States beat Russia 4-2 in the other semifinal Thursday.
Canada West will play Switzerland this afternoon (2:30 p.m. PT) to determine fifth place at the six-team tournament, followed by the bronze-medal game at 6:30 p.m. PT.
The final will be played Saturday at 4 p.m. PT.
Van Diemen said there's a chance the Kings will have Johnson back for their final two games before the break, while Victoria could have starting goalie Galajda back between the pipes for Sunday's game against Prince George.
Johnson is the seventh Spruce King to play for Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge. That list includes D Ryan de Vries (2006), G Kevin Genoe (2008), D Wes McLeod (2009), F Jujhar Khaira (2011), G Jesse Jenks (2013) and D V Viktor Dombrovskiy (2014).
F Seb Lloyd, a Prince George minor hockey product who played in the BCHL for the West Kelowna Warriors, suited up for Canada West in the WJAHC in 2012.
