If misery loves company the Brooks Bandits are certainly not alone in theirs.
After being held to one goal or less in three of their five Doyle Cup games - all losses at the hands of the Prince George Spruce Kings - it remains a mystery to the Alberta Junior Hockey League champions how to get their vaunted triggermen on the scoreboard with a more consistency.
Facing Doyle Cup elimination tonight in Game 6 of the best-of-seven series (7 p.m. start), the Bandits can now relate to the frustration felt by the Coquitlam Express, Chilliwack Chiefs, Victoria Grizzlies and Vernon Vipers when the suffocating Spruce Kings snuffed out their BCHL playoff lives.
The Kings returned home from Brooks to their hockey palace at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena Wednesday, trailing 2-1 in the series. after a somewhat shaky opening period in Game 4 the Kings have looked like world-beaters pretty much ever since, winning that game 3-1, followed by an even more convincing 4-1 victory Thursday in Game 5.
The Kings' commitment to playing team defence has been a trait they've stuck to religiously since the season started eight months and 80 games ago. It's not just the defencemen taking time and space away from the Bandits. The forward group and their shot-blocking tendencies, quick feet and aggressive bodywork have made the necessary sacrifices to limit Brooks scoring chances. When they do get through, goalie Logan Neaton always seems to get in the way, just like he did in Game 4 with 51 seconds left, when William Lemay, the AJHL scoring champion, dragged the puck across the crease and had what should have been the tying goal on his stick. Instead, the six-foot-three goalie stretched out with his long legs to cover the open side of the net and just as Lemay shot, Neaton lifted one leg to make the save.
Lemay collected 32 goals and 90 points in 58 regular season games and led the Bandits with 23 points in 15 AJHL playoff games but he's been snakebitten in the Doyle Cup, held to just one assist in five games. The same could be said about forwards Simon Gravel and Nathan Plessis. Gravel put up 67 points in 55 games and Plessis was well over a point per game with 49 in 45 games during the season. Both are pointless against the Spruce Kings and some of the blame has to go to Neaton. Through five games he sports a 1.81 goals-against average with a .939 save percentage and one shutout. The numbers posted by his Brooks counterpart, Pierce Charleson, have been equally impressive, with a 1.82 goals-against average, .992 save percentage an one shutout.
"It's been a little difficult playing in this barn and in the next coming games we've got to come out with lot more grit and a lot more passion and hopefully make more offensive plays and put a couple more pucks in the net," said Bandits winger Jake Theis. "We've got a lot of depth in our forward lineup and we get our D in the play a lot and we're able to create those offensive opportunities.
"(Neaton) has been standing on his head for a lot of the games. The two games in Brooks we were able to keep getting pucks on him, keep getting guys there, and that's what we need to do these next coming games because we haven't been doing it as much as we should."
The rink at Rolling Mix is 190 feet long, 10 feet shorter than most rinks, and the Bandits have had to adjust for that with series switching to Prince George after Game 3. With less room to work with the hits have come frequently and that's produced some bad blood with emotions running high between the teams.
"It's a different ice surface but in a series you just have to stick with it, you're not going to win four in a row usually in a Western Canada Cup," said Brooks centre Arnaud Vachon. "These are the two best teams in Canada so whenever we can we're going to go after each other a bit, kind of rile each other up, but that's just part of the game. They're a good team defensively but I think we're a better team and we're going to show it. Bounces aren't going our way but we're still generating good offence. Their goalie's been keeping them in games a lot but we broke through him in Brooks and that's one thing we can do again."
The Kings have run into a couple of injuries to key cogs on the blueline with veterans Liam Watson-Brawn and Jay Keranen both out with upper-body aches. They've had just five defencemen in the lineup since Keranen got hurt in the first period of Game 2 in Brooks. Three of them - Layton Ahac, Nick Bochen and Jason Chu are still in their 17-year-old seasons. Together with Dylan Anhorn, 20, and Max Coyle, 21, the healthy five that remain available have done their jobs admirably.
Chu, who tuned 18 in February, joined the Kings in November in a trade from Surrey and after spot duty in 38 regular season games and a seat in the stands for most of the BCHL playoffs he's played every game since Watson-Brawn was injured in the last game of the Victoria series and the Coquitlam native hasn't missed a beat.
"We're struggling with injuries on the defensive end so it's good to help out an take some minutes of our top guys and just be a steady strong defensive defenceman out there," said Chu. "It's been really exciting. The atmosphere in this building with the fans has been amazing and with the other team it's really competitive out there and that's how it should be, and it's just awesome to be a part of it."
Coyle, Anhorn and Ahac have been playing well over 30 minutes per game and seem to have the conditioning to play that much. The Kings have won the last two of the series after losing back-to-back games for the first time since Jan. 18.
"I don't think we weren't really used to dealing with adversity," said Coyle. "Coming in to play a team like this, they've got everything they need, I mean they're the top team. Everyone knows who Brooks is, growing up as kids, and they're coming into our barn and we're like, it's time to take it to them, let's show them who we are.
"That's the best team we've come up against and they put us on our heels in the second and third games in Brooks and we just watched some video and regrouped and thought to ourselves, let's take it to them and put them back on their heels."
Thursday's win improved the Kings' home playoff record to 11-0 and they're 19-3 in the postseason heading into what could be the last home game of the season tonight at RMCA. Having clinched the Fred Page Cup as BCHL champs in Vernon, the Kings want to reward their fans by raising a trophy on home ice, and they have two chances for that.
"We really built off our second and third periods (Wednesday) night, guys like playing in front of their home crowd in our rink," said Kings head coach Adam Maglio. "We hadn't lost two games in a row in a long time and it is a little deflating and we tried to push the guys pretty hard and just see how they would respond, because I think you're going to go through that same adversity at a national championship and you have no time in a short tournament like that.
"So we kind of used (the two losses) as bit of a guide so we know how to handle ourselves when we get to the national tournament. I thought our desperation level our intensity and our focus was really good the last two games."
The fact both teams were already qualified for the junior A national championship formerly known as the RBC/Royal Bank Cup, May 11-19 in Brooks had some hockey observers wondering whether the Doyle Cup would be a rather meaningless series with both teams just going through the motions to get to the bigger prize a few weeks down the road. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Bandits and Spruce Kings are two highly-skilled, evenly-matched teams that want to win their way into the national tournament and they are doing that by rewarding the fans with an intense series chock full of top-notch entertainment. With the exception of the Bandits' 4-0 win in Game 3, it's been intense, hard-hitting and suspenseful right to the end. The players are having as much fun playing in it as the fans are watching it.
Kings fans are being reminded to bring their rally towels to the rink tonight, which worked well for the team in Game 4. If the Kings lose tonight, Game 7 will be played Sunday (7 p.m.).
"Being down 2-1 and working back to this feels pretty awesome for us," said Kings captain Ben Poisson, who scored his 15th goal of the playoffs Thursday for the gamewinner. "We knew they're a high-calibre offensive team but coming into our rink, it's a hard rink to play in, especially when they pack the barn like this. It's awesome for us to see and that probably plays a big factor.
"We owe it to our fans for a lot of our success. If we were playing in front of an empty rink in the playoffs I don't think we'd have the same results."
