The hole the Prince George Spruce Kings have dug themselves into is deep, and with the season more than half complete, time is running out.
If the season ended today, the fifth-place Spruce Kings (7-21-0-2) would miss the B.C. Hockey League playoffs for the first time in five seasons.
To be a playoff team, the Spruce Kings need to finish in the top four in the Mainland Division and the team that now holds down that fourth spot, the Coquitlam Express (11-12-1-3), was 10 points ahead with three games in hand, not including Wednesday's game in Coquitlam against Vernon.
As the Spruce Kings found out in a 6-3 loss last Friday in Coquitlam, the Express are showing no signs they're willing to give up their ticket to the postseason. Coquitlam handed the Kings their fourth straight loss and will be looking to extend that losing streak tonight at the Coliseum (7 p.m. start) in the fourth of six meetings between the teams this season. Prince George started its three-game trip last week with a 4-0 Wednesday loss in Chilliwack, then lost again the following night, 4-1 in Langley.
"Going into Chilliwack, we were looking for a way better effort - I didn't think we played our best there," said Spruce Kings assistant coach Adam Maglio. "I thought against Langley we competed a bit harder and our game against Coquitlam was probably our best game but we lacked consistency through the whole game. We're struggling to find consistency and we had lapses, and two quick goals by them (in the third period) kind of sealed the deal."
Coquitlam has been getting great production out of top-line forwards Jackson Cressey, Colton Kerfoot and Austin McIlmurray. Cressey, a 19-year-old Princeton recruit and the Express captain, leads the team with 15 goals, three of which he scored against the Spruce Kings last weekend.
"We have to key in on the Cressey line and (Erik) Udahl is another guy with a lot of speed, which we saw," said Maglio. "Those guys are good players and they can all play in small areas so we have to contain them as well as match their speed. They have some big guys on the back end and we need to use our speed and get pucks behind them more than we did on Friday."
The Kings' special teams play, especially penalty killing, has been much better compared to the first month of the season and that trend continued last week. They successfully killed off all but one of 12 penalties in the three road games but their power play didn't do them any favours, going 1-for-12 over the same stretch.
Part of the reason for that is the absence of Jake LeBrun, their bruising captain and one of their top scorers. He'll be out for at least the next two months while he recovers from a broken collarbone. LeBrun had 11 goals in 24 games, tied with defenceman Adam Brubacher for the team lead, and had been on a bit of an offensive tear in the month before he got hurt in an awkward fall into the boards in a game against Salmon Arm, Nov. 21. The six-foot-one, 215-pound LeBrun is one of the strongest players in the BCHL and his presence around the net has been sorely missed. He'd been playing right wing on a line with Bryan Basilico and Kyle Johnson.
"There's no denying Jake's a big part of our team and it is a big loss to us but it also gives some guys other opportunities," said Maglio. "Guys have to want to step up into that role but I don't think we saw that on the weekend. You could tell we did miss Jake."
The Kings used both goalies on their trip last weekend. Seventeen-year-old rookie Liam McCloskey played in Chilliwack and Coquitlam, while Sam Tanguay, 20, took the loss in Langley.
"Liam has been playing more games now and he's probably not used to that load but I think he's handling it pretty well for a 17-year-old," said Maglio. "We're probably relying on him too much, because we're not giving him a lot of offence and that's the tough part as goalie when your team isn't scoring four-plus goals (a game)."
In fact, the Kings are averaging a league-worst 2.23 goals per game, a problem that's plagued them since the start of the season.
On Friday, the Nanaimo Clippers will be in town for their only regular-season visit to the Coliseum. The Clippers (18-10-0-1) have won six straight games and currently lead the Island Division.
Kings right winger Nic Ponak, 18, who missed last weekend with an upper-body injury, should play tonight, and the team could also have the services of 18-year-old defenceman Cooper Prechel. He's played just nine games this season due to a concussion. The Kings have called up right winger Colton Thomas, 17, from the Cariboo Cougars major midget team.
