From start to finish this B.C. Hockey League season, the Coquitlam Express has been the team to beat.
As regular season champions they’ve earned the top seed in the playoffs for as long as they keep winning. Even on nights when they don’t deserve to win, they find a way, as exemplified in Friday’s 4-2 triumph over the Prince George Spruce Kings 4-2 at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
A crowd of 1,234 witnesses watched the Express get outshot, outchanced and outplayed but not outscored and that’s the sign of team that’s made winning a habit.
Joshua Wildauer scored twice in the first period, including the game-winner, and Jack Watson stopped 30 of 32 shots in a first-star performance.
Fifty-seven games into a 58-game season, the Express have just nine losses in regulation, seven more in overtime or shootouts, and a whopping 46 wins. They knew the Spruce Kings probably deserved at least a point for their efforts instead of yet another home ice loss in the required 60 minutes. It’s just been that kind of year for the defending champs, who have but seven wins on RMCA ice this season.
“I think our goalie probably stole two points,” said Express head coach Jason Fortier, whose team will be back for the rematch at the same rink to wrap up the season Saturday.
“In the first period in there were moments when we were really good, but at the end of the day it feels like we’re trying to force our guys to work a little bit. They’re kind of going on cruise control and we’re trying to end the right way. Hopefully we’ll get ready for next game and have a bit better showing.”
On a night of strange goals, the Spruce Kings made it interesting in the third period when defenceman Mason Waite crossed the centre line and let go a shot that skipped off the ice and bounced high over the shoulder of Express goalie Jack Watson.
That goal put some extra glide in the Spruce Kings’ stride and made a comeback against the top team in the BCHL seem that much more achievable. They buzzed the net and held the puck in the Coquitlam end and put nine more shots on net the rest of the period but could not buy another goal.
Preston Brodziak came closest to tying it with about five minutes left when he jammed a shot on goal from the left wing circle that slipped between Watson’s legs and it appeared to be trickling in before the 19-year-old from Toronto reached back with his stick to trap the loose puck.
The Spruce Kings got off to a tough start. Wildauer scored just 17 seconds in on a shot that took a strange hop and he jammed it in from close range.
Carter Cochrane evened the count after linemate Andrew Seaman spun a backhand pass into the slot with 13:41 gone in the first. But the Express got that the lead back on a power play three minutes later.
Ethan O’Rourke, in his return to familiar haunts, restored the lead after the teams traded goals in the opening period. The former Spruce King/Prince George Cougar pounced on a puck that dropped out of the glove of Kings goalie Carter Woodside and whacked it into the net for his 16th of the season, on a Coquitlam power play.
O’Rourke missed six weeks with a broken hand he hurt in a fight in a game against Langley, Jan. 12, and it was the 20-year-old centre’s first game back in the lineup.
“It was far from our best but it’s not easy to come out when you have the travel we had coming up here,” said O’Rourke. “That’s why this (Kings) team always has an advantage when you come and play in their barn, because they’re used to it. I’m happy we came out the way we did.
“You can attribute a lot of that to Jack Watson, he played a fantastic game and he’s done a great job for us so far stepping in for Clay Stevenson and we’re happy to have him being our guy going into playoffs.”
Near the end of the period, Wildauer took a wrist shot from the blue line that hit off a Spruce King stick and hit the stick of goalie Woodside before it slipped in past the goalie’s glove. Three goals on five shots and the Kings were in 3-1 hole.
They played well enough in the second period to score on numerous occasions but ran into a hot goalie. Brodziak had to be the most frustrated Spruce King that period. Watson stuffed him twice on breakaways and also came with a standup save when the Kings centre was awarded a penalty shot, 8:42 before the break. Brodziak went with a backhand-forehand deke and appeared to have Watson beaten but couldn’t find the net.
“We had a couple mistakes in the first but in the second period we played really good,” said Brodziak. “We’re just trying to get into a rhythm of playing like that to get ready for playoffs because you can’t take a period off in playoffs. We know that and we just have to build off those last two periods.
Brodziak has 15 goals and 32 points in 55 games and the 20-year-old from Estevan, Sask., was hoping to end a 17-game scoring drought.
“It’s frustrating, obviously I’m in a little bit of a slump for scoring,” he said. “I just have to keep working hard and they will come.”
LOOSE PUCKS: The BCHL awards finalists were announced Friday and Kings winger Nick Poisson was selected as the Mainland Division candidate for the Bob Fenton Trophy as most sportsmanlike player. He’s up against MVP candidate Kent Johnson of the Trail Smoke Eaters (Interior Division)n and Marty Westhaver of the Victoria Grizzlies (Island Division). The award winners will be announced next week prior to the start of the playoffs next weekend…. The Express lost Stevenson, arguably the top goalie in the BCHL, when he quit the team following a win over Penticton on Feb. 14 to avoid losing a year of NCAA eligibility. That’s because Stevenson turns 21 on March 3 and if he plays for the Express after his birthday he would only be eligible to play at Dartmouth for three seasons. Although the NCAA allows players who attend a post-secondary school that doesn’t have a hockey team to transfer to the NCAA the flowing season with no penalty, that rule does not apply to Ivy League schools like Dartmouth. The Express acquired goalie Joe Howe from Victoria at the trade deadline to give them a second goalie with Watson. Stevenson will remain with the team as a goalie coach but won’t play the rest of the season.
Friday BCHL summary
Express 4 at Spruce Kings 2
First Period
1. Coquitlam, Wildauer 21 (Head) 0:17
2. Prince George, Cochrane5 (Seaman, Cunningham) 13:41
3. Coquitlam, O’Rourke 16 (Rizzo, Bellini) 16:50 (pp)
4. Coquitlam, Wildauer 22, 18:24
Penalties – Carabin (hooking) 0:37, Berkopec Coq (high-sticking) 2:28, Brodziak PG (interference) 16:27.
Second Period
No scoring.
Penalties – Berkopec Coq (roughing) 9:12, Ong Coq (unsportsmanlike conduct), Reeves PG (misconduct) 14:48, Waite PG (tripping) 17:06.
Third Period
5. Prince George, Waite 6, 4:54
6. Coquitlam, Tattle 6 (Schleppe) 18:48 (sh-en)
Penalties – Cousins PG (boarding) 7:11, O’Rourke Coq (tripping) 7:18, Ong Coq (high-sticking) 16:57, Cunningham PG (double-spearing) 18:48..
Shots on goal
Coquitlam 5 7 7 -19
Prince George 9 13 10 -32
Goal Coquitlam, Watson, (W,13-4-0); Prince George, Woodside (L,6-11-1-1).
Power plays – Coq: PG:
Attendance – 1,234.
Referees – Anthony Maletta, Braiden Epp; Linesmen –Tyler Garden, Ian walker.
