Prince George Spruce Kings left winger Wil Kushniryk played his best game of the season Wednesday night in Penticton, contributing a goal and an assist in the Kings’ 5-3 win over the Interior Division-leading Penticton Vees.
The injury-riddled Calgary Hitmen must have been watching because on Thursday they called the 20-year-old Chilliwack native up to the WHL.
“We are happy for Wil,” said Kings general manager Mike Hawes, in a team release. “He has played well for us in his time here but we knew that the call from a WHL team may come at some point. We fully support Wil going to Calgary and would never stand in the way of a player making a decision that he feels is best”.
The move is believed to be temporary and the Spruce Kings expect to have the six-foot-five, 210-pound Kushniryk back in a few weeks.
“Calgary is short some bodies right now due to injuries and Wil will help fill those voids,” said Hawes. “The plan right now is that Wil will rejoin our team prior to the last road trip leading up to Christmas.”
Kushniryk started the season in the WHL with the Tri-City Americans and joined the Spruce Kings Oct. 21.
The win in Penticton completed a five-game, 10-day BCHL roadtrip for the Spruce Kings, who will be back on home ice at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena for their next game Sunday (3 p.m.) against the Powell River Kings. The Spruce Kings won two to their five games on the road and heading into the weekend Prince George (11-15-2-3-0) ranks third in the Mainland Division.
“We’ve been banged up all year and we’ve missed certain key players at times with a lot of man-games lost and we’ve played well, I was proud of our roadtrip,” said Spruce Kings head coach Alex Evin. “Except for that Merritt game (a 4-1 loss) we were pretty solid.”
Powell River (13-14-0-0-0) plays tonight in Chilliwack and Friday in West Kelowna before making the trek north to face the Spruce Kings.
“I think they’re similar to jus, probably better than their record,” said Evin. “They’ve had some ups and downs and we’re going to get them on the end of a roadtrip. It’s going to be a tough game without a full lineup and we’ll just try to win an ugly one as a group. We’ll make sure we’re ready.”
The Kings won’t have Kushniryk and will also be missing three of their top scoring forwards on Sunday. Chong Min Lee remains sidelined with a shoulder injury and Nick Poisson and Fin Williams will be in Calgary trying out for Canada West for the World Junior A Hockey Challenge in Dawson Creek, Dec. 7-15.
Williams returned to the Prince George lineup Wednesday after missing 17 games with a leg injury and the 16-year-old from North Vancouver assisted on Nolan Welsh’s winning goal against the Vees – the 15th point in 14 games for the rookie centre.
“It was a big emotional boost, he cares so much and competes so hard and he’s still young but he’s a big leader for us,” said Evin. “Just how he carries himself, it’s beyond his years and it’s good to have him back.”
The Kings announced Thursday they’ve cut in half the price of youth (aged six-18) tickets for the rest of the season to $5 per game. Through 15 games, attendance at home games has averaged 883. Kyle Anderson, the team’s business operations manager, says the goal is to pack 28,000 fans into the rink for the team’s 29-game 2019-20 home schedule. To achieve that goal the Kings will need to average 1,037 fans per game. Attendance last season increased from an average 785 in 2017-18 to 983 in 2018-19.
