Each year the B.C. Hockey League selects two coaches, one from each conference, for the Joe Tennant coach of the year award.
Cranbrook Bucks head coach and general manager Ryan Donald has to get some consideration for the award considering what he’s done this season to shape the Bucks into contenders.
Cranbrook joined the BCHL as an expansion team just two seasons ago and after taking their lumps in the 2021 season, winning just three of 20 games in the Penticton pod, Donald and the Bucks turned it on their first 54-game season. With 11 players back from that first season, they finished fifth in the Interior Conference with a 29-20-2-3-0 record, just three points behind the fourth-place Prince George Spruce Kings, who host the Bucks in a best-of-seven playoff series which starts Friday at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
“There’s still room here to grow,” said Donald. “We’ve had some nice wins along the way but we’ve also felt like there were games where we deserved better and we didn’t play up to our standard. We’ve been happy with where we’re at but we certainly feel there’s more to squeeze and that’s kind of the goal as we head into playoffs is making sure we’re doing everything we can in order to maximize what we’re doing as a team.
“Something we’ve kind of stressed since we got going was working hard and buying in to the system structure in what we’re trying to do and trusting that if we do that consistently the results will come.”
Hired to head the 18th BCHL franchise, the 35-year-old Donald had a year to build his team before the Bucks hit the ice and the former Yale University assistant coach (2015-20) used his time wisely, scouring the continent for junior A talent to form a team that this season came close to earning the right to host the first round of the playoffs.
“The games we played against them were very close and extremely competitive and they deserve a lot of props,” said Kings head coach Alex Evin. “I know it was their first full season in the league and they finished quite well in a good conference. They’re young, they’re fast. I thought Cranbrook had a really good season and it should be a good series, we’re expecting a close one.”
The Spruce Kings and Bucks haven’t seen each since early January, when each team won one game of a two-game series in Cranbrook. The Bucks visited Prince George in early December for a three-game set and the Kings beat the Bucks in two of those games.
The Kings will step onto the ice for Game 1 Friday after a nearly two-week break between games. The league kept the last weekend open to allow plenty of time for teams to reschedule games postponed by COVID infections and the rainstorm in November in southwestern B.C. that caused widespread flooding and wiped out sections of highways. That also forced the league to scrap interconference games.
“We’ve used our extra week off to our advantage,” said Evin. “We’ve got some extra practice time in, some team-building, and we’ve had some rest and we’re healthy so we’re looking forward to ramping up a little more this week going into Friday.”
After going on an 18-point streak without a regulation loss for the first two months of 2022, the Spruce Kings ended the season March 19 with a 2-6-1-2 record their last 11 games. They went 2-1-1 in their last four.
No BCHL team came close to matching the Kings’ eight shootout losses this season and they also lost four games in overtime. In fact no Spruce Kings team has won in OT since Dec. 2, 2019. Despite their slump, the Kings had just 15 regulation losses and finished with a 27-15-4-8-0 record. Evin doesn’t dwell in the past and he says his team is anxious to prove they are better than their record would indicate over the past month. One thing’s for certain, there won’t be any shootouts in the playoffs.
“If we had it easy we wouldn’t have learned anything,” said Evin. “We played in a ton of close games and we were pretty much in a one-game game every night and some went our way and some didn’t. I thought we played quite well in our last few games and it’s good for us to build confidence off that, we know we can play with anybody in this league. We always look at adversity as a good thing.
“It’s definitely been a positive season, it’s no secret the Interior Conference is arguably the best conference in Canada for junior A. To get a home-ice seed I thought our group showed a lot of resiliency throughout our regular season and we got a top-four spot that is obviously very encouraging, and the group should be very proud of that. But now its 0-0 again.”
Both teams are stingy on defence. Prince George ranked second in the BCHL with just 129 goals against for a 2.39 average per game, trailing only Penticton (123 goals against, 2.27 GAA). The Bucks gave up 160 goals for a 2.96 GAA, eighth-lowest in the BCHL.
The Kings’ goaltending tandem of Jordan Fairlie and Aaron Trotter ranked first and third respectively in the BCHL in the goals-against-average category, with 20-year-old Trotter getting the bulk of the workload. Fairlie, the Kings rookie of the year, posted a .918 save percentage, slightly better than Trotter’s .914, and in that statistic they ranked fourth and fifth respectively in the league.
“They’ve definitely emerged as a big part of one of the strengths of our team,” said Evin. “Our two goalies deserve all the credit, they’ve put in the work in and we feel if any one is in the net we have a chance to win.”
Netminder Nathan Airey won 20 games in net for Cranbrook and played 39 games, putting up a 2.68 GAA and .911 save percentage. The Bucks also have 20-year-old Evan Gartner (3.31 GAA, .887 SV %) if they need to go to their backup.
“We believe in both of the guys we have here, no different than P.G,” said Donald. “Nathan has played the bulk and kind of carried the load for us as a young 18-year-old. He came here at 17 really excited about being a part of the Bucks and a young program and he’s just gotten better and better.”
The Bucks scored 169 goals (a 3.13 average) - one better than the Spruce Kings’ 168-goal total (3.11 average).
Evin split up his top scoring line - Nick Rheaume-Rowan Miller-Simon Labelle - during the team’s slump but they were back together for the last two games and they will be a trio to start the playoffs. John Herrington ranked second in team scoring (24G-30A-54P) and will likely remain centring a line with Kolton Cousins and Luc Laylin. There could be some jostling back and forth on the third and fourth lines, depending on how things shake down in the series.
On defence, Colton Cameron had been a standout as the Kings’ top defenceman, usually paired with Ben LeFranc, while the other blueline pairings are Josh Wright/Amran Bhabra and Nick Maricano/ Dylan Schives. Schives had QMJHL experience and has been a stabilizing force on the back end.
The Bucks have two NCAA recruits on defence - captain Rhys Bentham (Yale) and Declan Ride (Miami University). Rookie Bauer Morrissey totaled 22 points, one behind Bentham, and the Kings will have to pay close attention to him.
Up front, Cranbrook has a weapon the Kings do not – a top-five pointgetter. Tyson Dyck, who just turned 18 in February, joined the Bucks last year in the pod and has blossomed into one of the league’s most prolific scorers. Able to play any forward position, the Abbotsford native slotted in mostly at left wing and finished fourth in the BCHL scoring race with 34 goals and 75 points in 54 games.
“He’s been terrific,” said Donald. “It’s a biproduct of his work ethic and what he can do as an individual. For a 17-year-old to produce what he’s been able to produce has been great and I’m obviously very happy for him. One of the best things about Tyson is that competitive streak in him. He could have a couple points on the night but his goal is for us to win and wants to be part of winning program and that’s a big part of what makes him successful.”
Luke Pfoh usually centres the top line with Dyck and Liam Hansson (Air Force Academy). Another Buck forward to watch is Kellen Hjartarson, a Bentley University recruit who had 19 goals and 36 points.
The Kings have the edge on special teams. Their 10th-ranked power play struck with 21.5 per cent efficiency (52-for-242), while the Bucks were 17th (16.9 percent, 33-for-195). Prince George penalty killers ranked sixth-best, killing off 81.6 per cent (38-of-207) of their shorthanded situations, as compared to the 13th-ranked Cranbrook PK (77.7 per cent, 42-of-188).
The series starts with Games 1 and 2 this Friday and Saturday at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, then switches to Cranbrook for Games 3 and 4 next Monday and Tuesday. Cranbrook and Prince George are 877 kilometres apart and if the series goes seven games there will only be just one travel day between the fifth, sixth and seventh games.
“You’ve got the Number 4 and Number 5 seeds and it’s usually one of the tighter ones and it’ll be a good matchup for us, and ultimately they’re thinking the same thing,” said Donald. “Ultimately we’ve been trying to build our program and where we’re at in our season to be ready for playoffs and be maximizing what we’re every day so that we can be confident against whoever we’ll end up seeing and we wan to be ready for Game 1.”
Strange as it seems, the Spruce Kings are still the defending BCHL champions. League playoffs were cancelled after one round in 2020 just as the pandemic arrived, and there were no playoffs last year. The team is not as strong as the one that came within a couple of goals of winning the national championship in 2018, but starting the playoffs at home should mean a packed barn at RMCA for their home games and the intimidation factor will be thee for the visitors, which could be enough to swing the series in the Kings’ favour.
Prediction: Spruce Kings in seven
BCHL playoff schedule
Interior Conference first round
Prince George Spruce Kings vs. Cranbrook Bucks
Friday, April 1
Game 1: Cranbrook at Prince George, 7 p.m., Rolling Mix Concrete Arena
Saturday, April 2
Game 2: Cranbrook at Prince George, 7 p.m., Rolling Mix Concrete Arena
Monday, April 4
Game 3: Prince George at Cranbrook, 7 p.m., Western Financial Place
Tuesday, April 5
Game 4: Prince George at Cranbrook, 7 p.m., Western Financial Place
Thursday April 7 (if necessary)
Game 5: Cranbrook at Prince George, 7 p.m., Rolling Mix Concrete Arena
Saturday, April 9 (if necessary)
Game 6: Prince George at Cranbrook, 7 p.m., Western Financial Place
Monday, April 11 (if necessary)
Game 7: Cranbrook at Prince George, 7 p.m., Rolling Mix Concrete Arena
Regular season head-to-head
Dec. 9: Cranbrook 0 at Prince George 3
Dec. 10: Cranbrook 3 at Prince George 4
Dec. 11: Cranbrook 4 at Prince George 3
Jan. 7: Prince George 0 at Cranbrook 1
Jan. 8: Prince George 5 at Cranbrook 0
