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Island trip will test Spruce Kings' mettle

After 16 1/2 hours and 951 kilometres on the road and several ferry crossings the Prince George Spruce Kings bus finally arrived Thursday afternoon in Powell River.
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After 16 1/2 hours and 951 kilometres on the road and several ferry crossings the Prince George Spruce Kings bus finally arrived Thursday afternoon in Powell River.

And as soon as they unloaded their gear at Hap Parker Arena the Spruce Kings got dressed for practice. It's a formula that worked well for them last season in the playoffs when they beat Powell River in a five-game Coastal Conference championship series that sent the Spruce Kings into the B.C. Hockey League final and coach Adam Maglio wasn't going to mess with it.

Not with another three-games-in-less-than-three days road trip to deal with this weekend. His team will play the Powell River Kings tonight, then tackle the Allberni Valley Bulldogs Saturday night, followed by a Sunday afternoon encounter with the Nanaimo Clippers.

"We're familiar with the Powell River trip from last year's playoff series and I think having that familiarity with the travel schedule and ferry schedule we're a bit battle-tested there, for the guys who were with us last year," said Maglio. "Powell River's always a tough place to play so we need to be ready. We want to win and get the weekend off to a good start and build some momentum for Saturday. It's a 2 p.m. start Sunday and you just have empty the tank and play a real simple Sunday game.

"We're more worried about our game this weekend than we are our opponents and we're not going to use travel as an excuse."

The Spruce Kings (15-7-0-1, second in the Mainland Division) start the weekend virtually tied with the Coquitlam Express (15-7-1-0, third in Mainland). Both teams are five points behind the league-leading Chilliwack Chiefs (18-7-0-0), having played two fewer games than the Chiefs.

Winning all three over their Island Division opponents this weekend could help close that gap for Prince George but that's a tall order. No Spruce Kings team has ever run the table and come back with three wins from a weekend Island swing.

Powell River (13-10-0-0, second in the Island Division) could provide the toughest test of the three games. On Oct. 11 in Prince George, the other Kings of the BCHL rode the hot goaltending of Mitch Adamyk and beat the Spruce Kings 5-2. But Powell River has struggled in November, winning just two of its last six games. The Kings are coming off a split at home with the Langley Rivermen last weekend that started with an 8-1 win, followed by a 2-1 loss.

Maglio has tried to emphasize in practice the importance of better collective exits out of the defensive zone and more coordinated offensive-zone forays with the defencemen joining the rush.

"On Saturday night we certainly had more than enough chances, and that makes me feel a lot better," he said. "It's just getting pucks out a little cleaner and getting more off the attack rather than trying to get it from O-zone play. We have three D (Nick Bochen, Layton Ahac and Dylan Anhorn) in the top 15 or 20 in scoring (among BCHL defencemen). Our D are always engaged and you have to pick your spots, but we always want one up in the rush and they've done a fine job with that. We've seen lots of 2-on-2s or 2-on-3s, just because the exits haven't been that clean."

The Bulldogs (8-15-1-0, fourth in Island) and Clippers (9-13-0-0, third in Island) each have losing records and the trick for the Spruce Kings will be trying to conserve enough energy to get through the weekend. With the exception of winger Cory Cunningham (concussion) the Spruce Kings are healthy. Maglio named Logan Neaton as his starting goalie tonight.