The last time the Prince George Spruce Kings won a league championship was in the spring of 1996 when they beat the Fernie Ghostriders for the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League title.
That was 22 years ago and they haven't come close to that, until this year, playing in the higher-calibre B.C. Hockey League.
After dispatching the Powell River Kings with a 2-1 overtime win Thursday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena in Game 5 of the Coastal Conference championship, the Spruce Kings are now four wins away from hoisting the Fred Page Cup as BCHL champions.
The Spruce Kings will take on the Wenatchee Wild in the best-of-seven championship series which starts Friday night in Wenatchee, Wash. The Wild beat the Trail Smoke Eaters 6-1 Friday night in Wenatchee in Game 5 of the Interior Conference final to clinch that series 4-1.
Spruce Kings centre Kyle Johnson fired the series-winner for the Spruce Kings in Thursday's game, 8:06 into overtime, backhanding in the carom off the end boards after linemate Ethan de Jong's shot from the slot went wide.
As captain of the Spruce Kings, the 19-year-old Johnson's excitement was hard to contain, knowing he'd helped his team get further into the BCHL playoffs than any other Spruce Kings team in club history. This is the last season for the Port Moody native before he moves on to NCAA Division 1 college hockey at Yale University and he wants to go out a winner.
"It's so special, I've spent three years here now and I've always been dreaming that my last year would be a championship-run type of year and it's becoming reality, said Johnson. "To do it with this group of guys is unbelievable. There are so many good feelings in there and everyone really cares for each other and plays for each other. It's unbelievable."
The idea of having another shot at the Wild in the playoffs is especially appealing to Johnson. Last year in the first round the Spruce Kings lost the first three games of the series and were a minute away from tying the series in Game 6 in Wenatchee when the Wild scored two goals in the final minute to eliminate Prince George.
"That would be kind of a storied matchup for us considering what happened last year," said Johnson. "I feel that would give us more than enough motivation to get after them and give them a run for their money.
"I think this is the start of good times for P.G. Spruce Kings hockey and we want to continue this roll. We don't want to come up short this year just to maybe do something great in the next couple. It's our time now and we have to push for that."
The Spruce Kings had to come back with a late tying goal in Game 5 after Powell River opened the scoring 12:16 into the third period. Goalie Evan DeBrouwer, who joined the Spruce Kings in an of-season trade from the Nanaimo Clippers, has seen that happen many times this season where his team has had to dig deep to come out on top.
"Resiliency, that's been our word all year," said DeBrouwer. "Everybody has doubted us and we've been underrated all year long and I don't think anybody expected us to be where we are but it's no fluke. Nobody gets to the finals by fluke. Every single guy in that room has earned the opportunity we have now.
"In the biggest games, the guys play incredible. It's been that way all through the playoffs. Game 7 in the first round (against Chilliwack) was our best game of the series. Every game that we faced elimination in the (Surrey) series the guys were unreal, especially the defence, just letting me stop the puck and any rebound that was there they were all over it. Again (in Thursday's game), so many blocked shots in overtime, with not much time left in the game, and I can't say enough about my team, man they've been so good to me this year."
The key for the Spruce Kings was winning Game 4 in Powell River, a 5-4 final that easily could have gone the other way. Aside from Game 2, a 5-1 Prince George win at home, all the other games were one-goal decisions and two needed overtime.
"To be successful in the playoffs you have to win on the road and we failed to do that up here," said Powell River interim head coach Brock Sawyer, who took over behind the bench when Kent Lewis was fired Jan. 29. "For our group, we don't have anything to hang our heads about. We had four one-goal games and two of them in overtime. It could have gone either way and I'm sure they would agree, it could have been them on the other end and I'm proud of our guys for the effort they showed."
Sawyer was impressed with how the Spruce Kings played in the five games.
"They compete hard and they work hard every day and what separates them apart from a lot of other teams is they do the little things right," said Sawyer. "They have phenomenal habits and they stop on every puck, they finish every hit, and they don't turn down shots, and to come up here and see the community behind them and the building full makes it a tough place to play."
The Spruce Kings have one of the youngest teams in the league, guided by rookie head coach Adam Maglio, and DeBrouwer nailed it: nobody thought they would make it this far.
"We had a vision early on that we stuck with all year," said Maglio. "I think we held ourselves, the players, the staff accountable throughout the year, which helped us. I thought it was important with a young group to make sure that we didn't slide during the year and accountability was important because it prepares you to get through the playoffs and get to where we are now.
"Credit to the players, obviously. It's their play on the ice, their work ethic on and off the ice and we're really proud of them for getting to the finals here and obviously the work's not done. We're going to focus on winning this thing. We want to be the first-place team at the end and we want to win this league."
