Prince George Spruce Kings made franchise history Sunday, March 25, at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, winning their second-straight playoff series for the first time to advance to the third round of the BC Hockey League playoffs with a convincing 4-0 game seven victory over the Surrey Eagles.
No Prince George team since the Spruce Kings joined the league in 1996 has ever come close to putting together back-to-back series wins in pursuit of the Fred Page Cup and with their win Sunday the Spruce Kings are halfway to their first league championship.
The way it all unfolded was pretty much a carbon copy of the three previous games of the series played in Prince George. In other words, the Spruce Kings dominated. It could have gotten out of hand on the scoreboard early on if not for the play of Eagles goalie Mario Cavaliere, who held off the Kings and kept it a 1-0 game until the 17-minute mark of the third period.
Ethan de Jong has been the Spruce Kings’ best player all series and with the season on the line he took his game up another notch and was rewarded with two goals and an assist. Evan DeBrouwer notched his second shutout of the playoffs, making 14 saves as the Spruce Kings outshot the Eagles 38-14.
The Kings fed off a playoff atmosphere created by their fans, the likes of which the city hasn't seen in decades, and as a result they won the Interior Division final series 4-3 and will meet Powell River in a third round matchup which starts Friday, March 30, in Prince George.
“That’s huge, especially coming back from a 3-1 (series deficit), it shows the character we have in this room and what it takes to go out every day, everybody did their job out there today, every single guy, it’s huge,” said de Jong. “In their rink we just couldn’t find a way to win but thankfully in game six we brought it to them and didn’t let them take the win and we just kept going.”
The Spruce Kings appeared to have fresher legs and won most of the puck battles along the boards and it was de Jong who brought the 2,112 fans in a sold-out building out of their seats with a roar that echoed into the downtown streets when he scored the game’s first goal 3:25 into the first period.
De Jong had his feet moving on a right wing rush and as he darted towards the net took the puck off the stick of linemate Ben Brar, then had time to pick his target and found the top shelf behind Cavaliere for his team-leading eighth goal of the playoffs.
The Kings had at least five glorious chances to add to the count after de Jong’s goal before the period ended but couldn’t light the lamp. Surrey came close to tying it up late in the period on a power play when John Wesley got the pass in the slot with DeBrouwer out of position but just as Wesley went to shoot, the puck skipped under his stick.
In the second period it was much of the same and Cavaliere was the only reason the Kings’ goalscorers were unable to add to the count. The 20-year-old netminder came out of nowhere sliding on both knees to deny Kyle Johnson at point-blank range with about eight minutes into the period, one of a handful of showstoppers Cavaliere made.
“We were getting our chances, we weren’t finishing obviously in the second and first, but we knew we were going to get a few at the end there,” said de Jong. “It was just great character by the guys.”
In the third period, the Eagles offered significant pushback and after being held to just eight shots through 40 minutes they managed three of the dangerous variety on the Kings’ net in about the first minute.
Tension built the longer the game went on with the Kings nursing the smallest of leads and the fans released some of that pent-up emotion with their “Go Kings Go” chants and someone in the crowd started the wave, which quickly spread from section to section.
The Kings’ second goal was made possible by Johnson, who raced to beat an Eagle to a loose puck in the neutral zone, giving it to de Jong, who brought it out of the corner into the crease and with teammate Nolan Welsh in close proximity de Jong banged it into the net with just 2:47 left.
The Eagles pulled their goalie and de Jong seized the opportunity, racing up the boards to set up Ben Brar in front of the unguarded net for his sixth of the playoffs. Welsh added a power-play goal in the final minute with the two Eagles in the penalty box.
After finishing first in the Mainland standings, then dispatching the Chilliwack Chiefs in a seven-game series, the Kings started round two with a 9-1 win over Surrey at home in game one but lost the next three games and faced elimination the following three games.
“Full credit to the coaches and the players, they did a tremendous job being down 3-1 in the series and finding the will to battle back, they knew they had the ability to win three games in a row and this game was just tremendous,” said Kings general manager Mike Hawes. “The city of Prince George has always supported this hockey club and they were the sixth man here tonight and we appreciate that support.”
LOOSE PUCKS: The only other time the Spruce Kings reached the third round was in 2005, when they were part of the Interior Division and drew a first-round bye for finishing second in the regular season. That year, in the second round, they beat Salmon Arm in five games, then lost to Vernon in a five-game third-round series. The Vipers went on to lose the Fred Page Cup final in five games to Surrey… Sunday’s crowd was the first sellout in the building formerly known as the Prince George Coliseum since March 10, 2012. On that night, the last of the regular season, the Kings beat Penticton 5-2, ending the Vees’ 42-game winning streak. Penticton finished with a 54-4-0-2 record and 110 points, both BCHL records… Powell River Kings eliminated Victoria Grizzlies with a 4-3 overtime decision Friday, March 23, in Victoria, winning the series 4-1.
