Tavin Grant had every reason to feel shellshocked after the Wenatchee Wild lit him up for 12 goals in two games last weekend.
In his first road games since joining the Prince George Spruce Kings from the WHL Cougars, he was the goalie of record in 4-1 and 8-1 losses to one of the B.C. Hockey League's top teams.
Grant shouldn't feel bad. The Wild have shredded BCHL defences this season, averaging 5.67 goals per game and that's led to a near-perfect start with eight wins and one overtime loss for Wenatchee. Five of those wins, all in regulation time, have come at the expense of the Spruce Kings.
The last two games notwithstanding, Grant has already proven himself a winner. In his first outing with the Spruce Kings, he made 21 saves against the Cowichan Valley Capitals in a 5-3 win.
The 18-year-old from Burnaby is loving his new gig sharing the goaltending load with 20-year-old Stefan Wornig and says the best is yet to come for Spruce Kings fans.
"It's been good so far, I've been getting lots of opportunity to play and I've already noticed they're a bunch of good guys," said Grant, who made 28 saves as the third star in the 4-1 loss to the Wild. "I've done one road trip already and there was nothing but positivity. Wenatchee is a very good team and the games were (closer than the scores indicate). We definitely showed if we play our system and do as we're told, we can compete with those guys. They're just one of those teams that capitalize on every error. I know we can play with those guys easily, we did that in the first two periods in Wenatchee.
"I love that everyone on our team is always going, there's never anyone standing around, and they really are trying their best to stick to the system. I feel like once the games go on here, we'll be fine."
The Spruce Kings (3-7-0-1) are off to a slow start with just seven points in 11 games, second fewest in the 17-team league, but can take some solace in the fact all of their losses have been either to Wenatchee or the first-overall Penticton Vees (10-1-0-0).
Tonight at 7 at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena the Kings host the Alberni Valley Bulldogs (4-6-1-0, fifth in Island Division), followed on Sunday by a 3 p.m. home ice encounter with Powell River (7-6-0-0, third in the Island).
Grant is now a veteran of three training camps with the Cougars, who still retain his WHL rights, and still practices occasionally with the Cats, who are better able to monitor his progress now that he's with the Spruce Kings. That's also allowed him to stay with the same billet family (Steve and Alicia Carter), where he lives with their two kids and Cougars defenceman Tate Olson.
"It's good to be around the team I'm protected by, you never know what's going to happen," said Grant, who replaced 18-year-old Liam McCloskey, who was traded to Whitecourt of the AJHL. "It's been great working with Stefan, he's always supportive when I'm playing and we don't get down on each other at all, its only positivity between us. Having two goalies who can push each other is what I look for and what I love."
The Spruce Kings play their next seven games at home and this is a critical time to put a string of wins together with the season schedule top-loaded with home games in the first half. Prince George fans will get another look at 20-year-old defenceman Tyler Anderson. The six-foot-four, 215-pound native of Niverville, Man., made his Spruce Kings debut Sept. 30 against Cowichan Valley after arriving in the trade which sent 20-year-old forward Braiden Epp to the West Kelowna Warriors.
"It's been a good transition so far and hopefully we'll have a good weekend," said Anderson, who describes himself as a two-way, no-nonsense defenceman who will do anything for his teammates and likes using his body to punish opponents.
The Warriors ran the table last year, winning the RBC Cup national junior A hockey championship and the Kings are counting on Anderson's experience to shore up what now ranks as the worst defence in the BCHL. He's been getting more icetime than he was used to in West Kelowna and knows he will be counted on as one of the leaders on the team.
"Going on that run with that group of guys was something special and it was a tough trade but that's just part of hockey and I'm looking forward to having a good year here," said Anderson, a right-handed shot who plays the left side on a blueline pair with Connor Russell. "It's been good so far. I just want to work as hard as I can to provide the Spruce Kings with solid D and hopefully a championship."
The Spruce Kings are a healthy bunch with only a couple injured defencemen to deal with. Cooper Prechel is out with a lower-body injury and won't play this weekend but there's a chance Drew Lennon could be recovered from his lower-body pain in time to face Powell River.
Spruce Kings head coach Chad van Diemen says his team's weekend opponents play similar styles and points will be difficult to come by.
"They're both very hardworking teams and they're fast and opportunistic with some skill and we have to come out hard out of the gate and be disciplined and play a smart game and outwork them," said van Diemen, who took over as head coach in Prince George last year after six seasons in Powell River as associate coach and assistant general manager of the other Kings of the BCHL.
"It's a good test for our guys to bounce back. The last time we had a bad weekend against Wenatchee we bounced back well (beating Trail and Cowichan Valley on back-to-back nights) and this week hopefully we'll see that again.
"Last Friday I thought we had a pretty good game and a couple lapses cost us. On Saturday we got away from our game-plan pretty early and paid a price for it in the end. We had some breakdowns in the D-zone where (the Wild) found their (high forward) open and our discipline went out the window and we took too many penalties. In the offensive zone when we kept the puck moving and made them move around, we had some success, and when we didn't we were out of their zone very fast. We have to learn from those games. We've had a good week of practice and hopefully we can get back on track this weekend."
