Monday, December 16, 2013

Game Day vs Chilliwack Chiefs

This was the scene at the end of the first period
with Braiden Epp and Shay Laurent mixing it up.
Brogan O'Brien and Kurt Black were also involved in a
heavy collision that left both players slow to get up.

Tonight marks the final home game before the Christmas break for the Prince George Spruce Kings as the team concludes their double header with the Chilliwack Chiefs. The Spruce Kings and the Chiefs will meet one more time in Chilliwack before players head home on Friday night.

Both teams will be looking to collect two points for their stocking and improve their positioning in the standings. For the Chilliwack Chiefs, those points are becoming exceedingly important as they fight for playoff positioning in the Mainland Division. The Chiefs are sitting seven games out of a playoff spot with time becoming a factor.

The Prince George Spruce Kings are sitting second in the Mainland Division with 42 points after last night’s win. The Langley Rivermen are sitting in top spot with 48 points but have also played four more games than the Spruce Kings. A win tonight sets up an interesting finish before the Christmas break with Langley already into their break.

In last night’s game, the Spruce Kings opened up an early lead and held onto it for the duration of the game but shouldn’t expect it to be as easy tonight. The Chiefs left in the early morning hours for Sunday’s game and the Spruce Kings were able to take advantage building up a 3-0 lead in the first period.

The first goal, scored by Justin Rai at 6:01, led to the showering of donations in the Annual “Drop the Gloves and Sock it to ‘Em” game with new socks, gloves and togues being donated to the less fortunate and homeless in our downtown through the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

The Spruce Kings made it 2-0 on a short-handed goal when Brent Lashuk tapped in a nice cross crease pass from Karan Toor who had carried the puck up the ice after a defensive zone faceoff won by Jeremiah Luedtke. Jake LeBrun made it 3-0 after he tipped in a point shot from Skylar Pacheco.

There was no scoring in the second period and teams traded goals late in the third period with Austin Plevy scoring while the Chilliwack Chiefs were on a five minute powerplay. Justin Rai completed the Spruce Kings scoring finding the empty net after Karan Toor and Christian Weidauer came up with the puck in the neutral zone.

The Spruce Kings will want to be wary of the abilities of Chilliwack wanting to play hard and get the split against their Mainland Divisional rival tonight and be able to head home with at least two points and an end to their current losing streak.

Tonight's game will be broadcast live online with the pay-per-view feed available through Fasthockey.com and a free audio only webcast on the Spruce Kings Mixlr Channel beginning with a pregame show at 6:40pm.

No comments: