First round, first game — the Prince George Spruce Kings had a few nervous jitters to start the playoff Friday night in Chilliwack and the Chiefs took advantage to draw first blood in the best-of-seven BCHL Coastal Conference quarterfinal series, winning 3-2.
Now that their opener is out of the way, head coach Brad Tesink says his group built some momentum late as the game progressed and they had a much better finish that should help them deliver a more complete effort in Game 2.
“I think we built as the game went along,” said Tesink. “I think the first period we came out and it was a new experience for us, but we settled down as the game went on and kind of established how we want to play to play in the series, so I think there’s a lot of positive coming out of tonight.”
In a battle between the first-place Chiefs and the eight-place Spruce Kings, Prince George was first on the scoresheet. Centre Brock Cummings combined with Corson Maguire to get the puck in behind goalie Quentin Miller, a fourth-round Montreal Canadiens fourth-round draft pick in 2023.
But the Spruce Kings got themselves in penalty trouble and the Chiefs’ power play struck twice in less than three minutes late in the opening period to take a 2-1 lead into the dressing room.
Brady Milburn, the Chiefs’ second-leading scorer with 20 goals and 52 points in 49 games, was set up on both goals by 70-point man Mateo Mrsic.
Chilliwack’s power play ranked second in the BCHL this season, clicking at an 80 per cent rate. The Chiefs finished 2-for-5 and the Spruce Kings went 0-for-4.
“At the end of the day, special teams is always a big spot in the playoffs and for us, we want to clean up some of our details and obviously we want the series to stay 5-on-5 and go from there,” said Tesink.
Chiefs forward Connor Arsenault scored the only goal of the second period 14 minutes in with the teams playing at even strength.
The Spruce Kings matched the Chiefs shot for shot in the third period, each team with nine, and one of those Prince George pucks got through the goalie Miller. Defenceman Trent LeDrew scored his first BCHL playoff goal with less than three minutes to play to make it close. The Spruce Kings outshot the Chiefs 13-8 in the opening period and 32-31 in the game.
“We had the compete, that never-give-up mentality when you’re down a few goals, it would have been easy to give up to pack it in and live to fight another day, but that group, we’re never out of it and our guys pushed hard,” said Tesink. “We were able to establish a bit of a down-low gameplan as the game went on and wore done their defencemen and get some traffic in front of their net. For me, lots of positives.”
Kings goalie Charles-Edward Gravel had his usual day at the office and was sharp for most of the game.
“He probably wants one of those back, given the high compete (level) he does, but he was able to bounce back in the game pushed on and gave us a chance at the end,” said Tesink.
The series resumes with Game 2 Saturday in Chilliwack (6 p.m.). The best-of-seven series switches to Kopar Memorial Arena for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday (7 p.m. both nights).
If it goes to Game 5 that would be played next Friday in Chilliwack, with Game 6, in needed, Sunday, April 13 in Prince George. A seventh game would be played Wednesday, April 15 in Chilliwack.
