For the second consecutive season the Spruce Kings are heading to Round 3 of the B.C. Hockey League playoffs and they did it by completing a sweep over the Chilliwack Chefs - the best team regular-season team in the league.
The Kings capped off the series with a 3-1 win Tuesday night in front of a standing room-only crowd of 1,847 at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
They stunned the Chiefs with relentless forechecking, airtight defensive-zone coverage, lights-out goaltending and an opportunistic group of skaters who outscored their opponents 21-3 in the four-game series.
Max Coyle, Chong Min Lee and Dustin Manz, into an open net, took care of the goalscoring for the Kings. Brett Ryalance scored the only Chiefs' goal, while shorthanded.
"Essentially it came down to we overwhelmed them a bit, right from the drop of the puck in the first game all the way through the fourth victory," said Kings general manager Mike Hawes. "We have such a hardworking group of focused young men and we saw it in this series. We had two shutouts in four games, gave up a total of three goals, and that's accredit to (goalie) Logan Neaton, the D-corps, the forwards, the coaching staff. They work so hard as a group together, full credit to those guys."
"To have success in the playoffs, and we learned last year from it, you certainly have to have depth at every position and I think we have that. It really showed through in this series."
It didn't take long for the Kings to fire up the offence. They scored on the first shot of the game, a long wrister from just inside the blueline along the right-side wall from Coyle that appeared to get tipped in front by Patrick Cozzi past goalie Daniel Chenard.
Ben Brar forced the turnover with a hit against the end boards and Cozzi and Dustin Manz persisted with their forechecking to send the puck back to Coyle.
Lee made it 2-0, 10:28 into the game, taking advantage of the hard work of Kings defenceman Jay Keranan. He stripped the puck away from Brett Willitts just inside the Chilliwack zone and carried it in past the goal line and spun a backhand pass to Lee, who let it go right away from the face-off circle for his third of the playoffs.
The Kings had several more high-percentage scoring chances to add to the lead before the break. Nick Bochen grazed the crossbar near the end of the period with the Kings on their second power play of the game.
The Chiefs lost winger Kevin Wall, their second-leading scorer in the regular season, when he got bodied against the boards by Kings centre Ben Poisson. He appeared dazed by the hit and had to be helped off the ice 4:29 into the game.
The Kings dominated the second period but failed to add to their lead. Chenard's best save came early in the period when he stuck out his glove to rob Lucas Vanroboys from 10 feet away.
The Chiefs spent much of the third period killing penalties, forced to kill off three minors under wilting pressure from the Spruce Kings, who were unable to score. The Chiefs caught a break when Rylance, trying to relieve the pressure on the penalty kill, put a shot into the Kings' zone from just outside the blueline, The puck hit off the sideboards and kicked out off the lively end boards into the slot and Rylance tracked it down and beat Neaton with his shot to cut the lead to 2-1 with 9:43 left on the clock.
Almost lost in the series win was the stellar play of Neaton. He came into Tuesday's game with a league-leading 1.33 goals-against average and .941 save percentage. He didn't get tested often by the Chiefs in any of the four games but his concentration was unfailing and he had to be sharp to keep the puck out on the rare opportunities Chilliwack had after extended periods of watching his team hold the puck in the offensive zone.
That goal from Rylance ended a shutout streak that lasted 135 minutes and one second for Neaton. He hadn't allowed a goal since Wall scored in the second period of the Kings' 3-2 win Saturday in Game 2 in Chilliwack
The Spruce Kings will have home-ice advantage for the rest of the playoffs, no matter who they face. They will await the Island Division final winner, either the Victoria Grizzlies or Powell River Kings, and will host the first two games of the Coastal Conference championship, Friday, March 29 and Saturday, March 30.
The Grizzlies had a 2-1 series lead and were tied 2-2 with the other Kings of the BCHL heading into overtime Tuesday in Powell River.
In other games Tuesday, the visiting Vernon Vipers beat the Trail Smoke Eaters to cut the Smokies' series lead to 2-1. Game 4 is tonight in Trail. In the other Interior Conference semifinal, the Cowichan Valley Capitals jumped ahead 2-1 in their best-of-seven series with the Wenatchee Wild after a 5-3 win Tuesday in Duncan. That series resumes tonight on Vancouver Island.
