The Prince George Spruce Kings’ depth was put to the test Saturday in Game 6 of their BCHL Interior Conference quarterfinal series in Cranbrook.
Eight minutes into the third period, Kings’ starting goalie Aaron Trotter was involved in a violent collision with Cranbrook Bucks forward Zeth Kindrachuk. The Bucks forward took off on a partial breakaway and rushed the net, just as Kings defenceman Dylan Schives arrived. Kindrachuk was knocked slightly off balance by Schives and as he skated into the crease he stuck out his forearm and clobbered Trotter in the head, knocking off his mask.
Trotter was unable to continue, so Jordan Fairlie came into the game and was flawless in goal. He stopped all five shots he faced in the third period and made five more in overtime as the Kings’ clawed back from a 2-1 deficit and ended the series when they beat Bucks 3-2.
“For Jordy to go in cold in Game 6 and we’re down by one, he did a tremendous job,” sad Kings head coach Alex Evin. “If someone else goes down we need guys to do exactly what Jordy did. We have two good goalies and I’ve always said we can put any one in at any time and I have full confidence they’ll get the job down and Jordy proved that last game.”
Rowan Miller tied the game with about four minutes left and won it with his second goal of the game 13:42 into overtime. The Spruce Kings won the series 4-2 and will advance to the second round against the Penticton Vees. That was determined Monday night in Salmon Arm where the Silverbacks defeated the Wenatchee Wild 6-3 in Game 7 to win the opening-round series.
The first-place Vees will host the Spruce Kings in the first two games of the best-of-seven Interior Conference semifinal series, which starts Thursday. Salmon Arm will take on the West Kelowna Warriors in the other Interior semifinal, starting Friday.
The Kings opened the playoffs with a pair of 4-1 victories over the Bicks at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. In Cranbrook, they lost the next two games, 3-0 and 5-3. The series came back to Prince George for Game 5 on Thursday and the Kings scored two goals in the final four minutes to win 3-2.
“I loved our mindset since Game 4, we’ve found the areas where we were successful and just hammered away in sticking with it and both our last two victories came from increasing our intensity and urgency level and we got rewarded both games,” said Evin.
On Miller’s series-winning goal Saturday, he split the defence and got to a puck chipped ahead by linemate Simon Labelle. The 20-year-old centre finished with a high shot over the glove hand of goalie Nathan Airey.
“Rowan made a big play at the end, knocking the puck out of midair and going in for the goal, it was unbelievable,” said Evin. “It looked like Simon was just trying to get the puck in behind the D and Rowan knocked it down and got behind the D, it was great.
“That line (Miller and Lanelle with Nick Rheaume) maybe didn’t have the best first three or four games but they were the guys who stepped up in the last two games to tie the game and put us in both games, that was huge.”
It was a rough series for the 21-year-old Trotter. He got bowled over late in the first period Saturday by Bucks forward Quaid Anderson, who drove to the net and was checked by Ty Gagno, causing the Bucks forward to fall on Trotter, who was unhurt on the play. Anderson was handed a two-minute penalty. In the first game of the series, Trotter was flattened by centre Noah Quinn, who was ejected with a major penalty and assessed a two-game suspension for the hit.
“Unfortunately for Aaron this was the third time they had gone after him in the series,” said Kings general manager Mike Hawes. “We don’t see a lot of that in the game anymore but sometimes in playoffs, when things are on the line, sometimes things like that take over the players.
“I’m very happy with the effort, especially in those last two games, they showed a lot of resiliency in their game and battled right to the end. Give Cranbrook credit, the did a good job of controlling a lot of those games but our guys didn’t quit and were able to pull it out late in both games.”
Trotter’s injury is listed as day-to-day. Winger Luke German is also listed as day-to-day coming back from a concussion after a high hit into the boards from Liam Hansson in Game 1.
Saturday’s game at Western Financial Place in Cranbrook drew 3,002 fans in what was the season-ending game for the Bucks, who just completed their first full season in the league.
“Cranbrook, even for their first year, they’re already going to be one of the premier franchises in the league with a great facility and fan support, a great coaching staff and a good young team. It made for a good series with the support we had in our building from our dedicated fans. The building was rocking here and to go down there I know the boys enjoyed playing in front of those big crowds with their building rocking as well. It made for a tremendous series."
The Spruce Kings will host Penticton in Games 3 and 4 Monday and Tuesday at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. Tickets will go on sale Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the Kings office at RMCA.
If the series is extended, Game 5 will be played next Thursday in Penticton. The series would return to Prince George on Saturday, April 23, with Game 7, if needed, in Penticton on Monday, April 25.
The Spruce Kings (27-15-4-8-0, fourth in Interior) split the six-game regular season series with the Vees (43-8-1-2-0, first in Interior), starting with a 7-1 win Oct. 27 in Prince George. The Vees took the rematch two days later 3-0 in Penticton and beat the Kings 5-1 at RMCA on Dec. 1. The Kings won the next two, 6-2 at home on Jan. 19 and 3-2 in Penticton on Feb. 19. The Vees ended the series with a 3-2 win March 4 in Penticton.
