Never say die.
The Prince George Spruce Kings have lived by that mantra throughout this BC Hockey League season and their collective will to refuse to lose very nearly got them back on even terms against the Chilliwack Chiefs Friday night at Chilliwack Coliseum.
In a game they had no business still being within striking range in, after being outshot 40-6 and outscored 2-0 through two periods, the Spruce Kings forgot about how badly they were outplayed and with a minute left were one shot away from sending it into overtime.
With goalie Charles-Edward Gravel getting a well-deserved rest on the bench for the extra skater after making 42 saves, Will Moore drew a crowd of Chiefs to the net and let go a shot from the side of the cage that bounced off the pads of Quentin Miller and trickled over to Kings forward Owen Goodbrand.
Unfortunately for the Spruce Kings, Goodbrand was unable to get his stick on the puck looking at an open net, and the Chiefs hung on to win 2-1 and take a 3-2 series lead.
Chilliwack will have a chance to wrap up the best-of-seven series in Game 6 in Prince George Sunday night (6 p.m.) at Kopar Memorial Arena.
Carter Anderson’s even-strength goal 15:47 into the second period was the gamewinner for the Chiefs, who outshot the Spruce Kings 44-16.
As one-sided as it was in those first two periods, the Spruce Kings finally got their act together in the third period and carried much of the play, outshooting Chilliwack 10-4. One of those shots, a tip-in from Brock Cummings on a Prince George power play provided the spark the Kings needed to get back to into the game.
They started winning faceoffs, putting passes together and got their skating legs, all of which were aspects of the game missing in the first two periods. As badly as the shots were through 40 minutes, the Spruce Kings at least a dozen pucks to try to limit the chances on Gravel and they continued to sacrifice their bodies in the third period while limiting the potent Chiefs offence to four shots.
“We weren’t very good at the start, didn’t have a lot of energy it seemed and the Chiefs were playing very well, good thing Charles came to play again as he kept us in the game and gave us a chance,” said Kings general manager Mike Hawes.
“We weathered the storm the first two periods and in third we were much better. The playoffs is a time when you’re going to reinforce the positives and the positives are that we never gave up and were one shot away from tying that hockey game, so there’s a lot to build on and some momentum heading into Game 6.”
Gravel was a busy guy from the get-go but was his usual unflappable self, blocking just about everything fired his way. The 20-year-old from Quebec came into Game 5 with a 2.26 goals-against average and .935 save percentage, continuing to provide the kind of goaltending he showed last season in the QMJHL playoffs when he went 12-5 with the Baie Comeau Drakkar.
After being outshot 13-0 in the first period the shot count was even more lopsided in the second (27-4) and the odds finally caught up to the Spruce Kings.
The Chiefs went on their second power play and Caleb Elfering came close to opening the scoring but was denied by a terrific pad save by Gravel when he got his leg down in front of the puck. Prince George was nine seconds away from returning to even strength when Nico Grabas sent a backhand saucer pass across the slot to Dwayne Jean Jr., and the former Tri-City American buried the puck low in under Gravel’s outstretched glove for a 1-0 lead at 14:27.
Less than two minutes later, Chiefs defenceman Jayden Veney let go a shot that was partially deflected by a Spruce King and the puck squirted over to Anderson, who let a ripper fly from the slot to make it a 2-0 game.
At that point the Spruce Kings looked nervous, afraid to make mistakes, resulting errant passes and stumbled breakout attempts, icing infractions and turnovers. It took 32 minutes of game time but they finally generated their first scoring chance. Cummings stickhandled his way into the zone and dished a backhand pass to linemate Goodbrand cruising into the slot on the left side but Chilliwack goalie Miller was ready for the shot and didn’t allow a rebound.
The Chilliwack power play, which was held to one goal in the two games in Prince George, had to be held at bay for the Spruce Kings to have a chance and no doubt that was discussed in the dressing room during the second intermission.
Jean Jr.’s goal in the second period was the sixth power-play goal in 20 chances in the playoffs for the Chiefs and they came out for the third scoring at 30 per cent clip with the man advantage.
The Spruce Kings’ power play, which went 0-for-17 in the first three games, has now stuck for three goals in six chances in the past two games combined.
“The special teams was a concern the first two games but we’ve rebounded well,” said Hawes. “Even with the penalty-kill we’ve done a much better job and to score a few on the power play has been nice. You need to have your special teams going to have any success in the playoffs, no doubt about it.”
Tickets for Game 6 Sunday will be on sale at the Spruce Kings office at Kopar from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and you better get there soon. There was already more than 1,000 sets sold by gametime Saturday in a rink that holds less than 2,200 including standing room.
“I expect Kopar Memorial to be rockin’ with our fans that are tremendous and have supported this group all year long,” said Hawes. “It’s going to be one heckuva battle. It’s a tough rink to play in and when our fans are loud and when the place is rocking it’s makes it even more of a difficult place to play in and I expect it to be pretty loud and crazy in there on Sunday night.”
