The Chilliwack Chiefs had the most potent offence in the BC Hockey League this season and they got all they needed again Saturday in a 4-2 win over the visiting Prince George Spruce Kings to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven Coastal Conference quarterfinal series.
Brady Milburn continued to scorch the Spruce Kings and he led the way with a goal and two assists. The Chiefs’ leading scorer had 10 goals in the six-game regular season series against Prince George and he scored two of the three they allowed in Friday’s 3-2 Game 1 loss.
Dustin Renas, Jayden Veney and Carter Anderson also scored for the conference regular season champions.
Nicoalas Papineau and Brock Cummings were the Prince George goalscorers.
As was the case Friday, special teams were the difference.
The Chiefs went 2-for-5 on the power play and their penalty-killers continued to stifle the Spruce Kings. They blocked shots, got sticks in the lanes and kept the Kings from setting up in front of the net, holding their opponents without a goal on their four power plays.
It didn’t help the Kings’ cause that they were missing one of their big guns with Kazumo Sasaki sidelined for Game 2 with an injury from the previous game.
The Spruce Kings are now 0-8 on the power play in the series, continuing a trend against Chilliwack that carried over from the regular season series when the Chiefs held Prince George to four goals in 32 chances in those six games.
“Obviously we’ve had our struggles on both special teams and we have a couple days to clean some details up and we’ll be better for it,” said Spruce Kings head coach Brad Tesink, who expects to have Sasaki back in the lineup when the series resumes Tuesday.
“He’s just a little banged up, that’s nothing crazy, we’ll see him in Game 3. His speed can be a killer, a real deadly weapon, so inserting him back in the lineup for Game 3 will be huge.”
Both goalies were busy as the Spruce Kings outshot the Chiefs 37-36.
Trailing 2-1, the Spruce Kings got their offence going early in the second period with a series of effective sustained shifts and had the Chiefs pinned in their end for some sustained pressure when they were finally rewarded.
Cummings chipped the puck behind the net for Will Moore, who tried to feed Linden Makow in front and the puck skipped off Makow’s stick right back to Cummings, who picked the corner low on Quentin Miller.
But the Chiefs had an immediate response. Just three minutes later, with Makow serving a holding call, the fourth minor of the game assessed to the Spruce Kings, Carter Hesselgrave’s clearing attempt was picked off at the blueline and the puck came to Milburn, and he went five-hole on Charles-Edward Gravel to score his third of the playoffs, all on power plays.
Former Prince George Cougar Arjan Bawa set up the fourth Chilliwack goal 47 seconds later with a shot through a screen that produced a rebound and Anderson hammered it in through Gravel’s legs.
“We had enough quality chances to win that hockey game,” said Tesink. “There’s obviously some things we would like to see better done on our side of the puck. You score two, you score three, you should have an opportunity to win a playoff game. Definitely we’re going to clean up a bit of our D-zone.”
The Chiefs scored with 19.6 seconds left in the first period to retake the lead. Milburn’s shot from the point deflected off a Spruce King and ricocheted off the end dasher back out to Renas, who fed a perfect backhand pass to defenceman Veney for a close-range shot that went in.
After Renas opened the scoring on a power play 81 seconds into the game, Papineau tied it late in the period with his first BCHL playoff goal. He won a footrace with Milburn to get to a loose puck at the Chilliwack line and while spinning chipped it ahead into the slot for Ryan Wachtel, who took the puck to the net and it went off the goalie Miller right to Papineau cruising in from the left side.
Seconds after Papineau was denied by a Miller save on a 2-on-1 with Moore, the Chiefs threatened to add to their lead 4:39 into the third period when Caleb Elfering was sent in on a breakaway and was fouled from behind by defenceman Maks Percic, resulting in a penalty shot.
Elfering went to his forehand and got a good shot away but Gravel, a Mercyhurst University recruit, stood his ground and licked out his pad to deflect the puck away.
“That’s what you expect out of your 20-year-old goalie,” said Tesink. “He stood tall for us in some big moments and gave us an opportunity there.”
The Kings’ line with Papineau and his wingers Moore and Wachtel generated some great chances and Tesink expects that to continue.
“When you can get a secondary line going here with a ton of speed those three are dynamic offensively and (with the next two games at home) we’ll put them in the right opportunities with the right matchups,” said Tesink.
The series switches to Prince George for games Tuesday and Wednesday at Kopar Memorial Arena. Game time both nights is 7 p.m.
Tesink looks forward to his team playing in a rink that’s 10 feet shorter than NHL dimensions and hopes to utilize that to the Spruce Kings’ advantage.
“Obviously getting home playing in a bit smaller rink we’ll be able to get on their offensive weapons a little but quicker and I’d like to see us be a little more physical,” he said.
Tickets are on sale through the Spruce Kings website or in person at the team office at Kopar from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. on weekdays and starting at noon on game days.
