The Prince George Spruce Kings hit the road Thursday for an extended weekend roadtrip that will match them against the B.C. Hockey League frontrunners.
It starts Friday when the Kings visit the Salmon Arm Silverbacks for the second time in a little over a week. The Kings (23-9-3-6-0, .671 winning percentage, third in Interior Conference) doubled the Silverbacks 4-2 in their most recent meeting Feb. 9 in Salmon Arm and have won two of three head-to-head games this season, all played in Salmon Arm.
The second-place Silverbacks (30-6-3-1-0, .800) are in a race for top spot in the Interior with the first-place Penticton Vees (31-6-0-2-0, .821). The Vees host the Spruce Kings on Saturday.
The final stop on the trip for Prince George is a Family Day matinee on Monday when they visit the Vernon Vipers.
The Spruce Kings have 13 games left in their regular season schedule and all are against either Salmon Arm (five games), West Kelowna (three), Vernon (three) or Penticton (two).
“It’s going to be a tough stretch to end the regular season, for sure, and this weekend is a good test for our group,” said Kings general manager Mike Hawes. “We’ve been playing pretty well and playing some good hockey, but so have those other teams.”
The Kings take an 18-game point steak into Salmon Arm. They haven’t lost in regulation time since Dec. 18, a 2-1 decision in Vernon. That was just before the Christmas break and since then they’ve reeled off 10 regulation wins, along with six shootout losses and two overtime losses.
“We’ve been a little bit snakebit, for sure, in overtime and shootouts,” sad Hawes. “There’s some games where we maybe don’t deserve to get that win in regulation, but the boys battled through every time and find a way to get points in hockey games and credit to them to be able to do that.
“As the GM, the biggest stat for me is the losses column and I know that before Christmas our losses column had the number nine in it and here we are, two months later, and it still has the number nine in it, so that’s a positive thing. To go 18 games without a regulation time loss is pretty impressive for the group and something they should be proud of.”
Nick Rheaume ranks 12th in the BCHL scoring race continues to lead the Spruce Kings with 23 goals and 23 assists for 46 points in 40 games. John Herington is also averaging better than a point-per-game, with 19 goals and 25 assists for 44 points in 41 games. He’s 18th on the BCHL list. Simon Tassy of Salmon Arm leads the league with 35 goals and 67 points in 40 games.
Spruce Kings goalies Jordan Fairlie and Aaron Trotter rank first and third respectively in the BCHL. Fairlie sports a 1.83 goals-against average and .925 save percentage with a 7-2-6 record, while Trotter has a 2.06 GAA and .920 save percentage and a 16-7-3 record. Both have two shutouts this season.
Defenceman Josh Wright remains on the Kings’ injured list. He had just recovered from a concussion when he hurt his shoulder in practice this week. Also unavailable this weekend is left winger Nathan Fox, out with a hip injury.
