The BCHL playoffs don’t start until April.
The Prince George Spruce Kings and Langley Rivermen must not have received the memo.
They battled tooth-and-nail Saturday night like their playoff lives depended on it.
Considering how close they are in the standings, both teams showed all the signs they’re already in playoff mode.
The Rivermen came to the rink Saturday on the heels of a 3-1 loss to Prince George Friday at Kopar Memorial Arena knowing the Spruce Kings were breathing down their necks, just one point behind, with a chance to leapfrog them into the eighth and final Coastal Conference playoff spot.
Not on this night.
Keenan Ingram made it a two-point occasion for the visiting Rivermen when he scored 63 seconds into overtime to ice a 2-1 victory that ensured Langley remains in the driver’s seat.
The Rivermen scored early and for awhile there it looked like that might be the only goal of the game until Brock Cummings potted a rebound with 2:06 left in regulation time and goalie Charles-Edward Gravel on the bench and it remained a 1-1 game until the buzzer, which meant each team would secure a point.
After being outshot 35-26 through three periods the Rivermen had the only two shots of overtime and made the second one count. Ingram took a feed from Ben Portner and with two Spruce Kings backing in tight to the crease he let got a low shot that got through Gravel.
“You’ve got to give PG credit, they’re playing some really good hockey right now and they’ve been playing that playoff style, low-scoring hockey for some time and for us, we’ve been searching for that kind of game, and coming out on the other side with it,” said Rivermen head coach and general manager Chris Shaw.
“We’ve had 15 overtime games so for and those is out fifth win out of that. Both teams are scratching and clawing for that final playoff spot and I know our conference is tight and with a string of wins you can probably move up. I’m really happy with our response in that game. It was a good game with a bit of old school in it and I thought both teams competed really hard. Honestly, I think it’s going to come down to the last game, every game’s a playoff game now for our teams.”
The Kings started February eight points behind Langley and were three points back to start the weekend three points behind Langley. Now that’s down to two, so it was a net gain for Prince George head coach Brad Tesink and his team.
“Obviously it was a good battle between both teams, there wasn’t a lot of offence on either side and it was playoff-style hockey,” said Tesink. “We’ll take that one point, we gained one this weekend and we’ll keep pushing.
“There’s some stuff we want to clean up as a group. The standard’s high here and I think these guys have really bought into that. We left them off the hook early in the game and it came back to bite us where we couldn’t find that goal we needed earlier on. We’ve shown over the course of pushing the pace the last few months here that no-quit attitude in this dressing room and it shows tonight. If we can keep gaining one point each weekend we’ll be where we need to be.”
Langley delivered the first strike. Rivermen centre Ryan Schelling got behind enemy lines on a breakaway and buried his blocker-side shot behind Gravel just inside the post 7:25 into the game.
The Rivermen came close to doubling their lead halfway through the period when Davids Livsics took a carom off the side boards and fired a slapper that hit iron behind Gravel. On the next stoppage the officials took a look at the video replay and determined the puck hadn’t gone in the net.
The Kings had two power plays but were unable to get one past Dylan Johnson, their former teammate in net, and it soon became obvious an epic goaltending duel was in the works with Gravel equally locked in to keep the puck out.
Prince George started the second period on a four-minute power play with Langley defenceman Cameron Sytsma fingered for a double-minor for high sticking as time expired in the first period. After Gravel bailed his team out with a pad save when Schelling took off on a shorthanded breakaway, the Kings power play peppered Johnson with six shots, including a bullet one-timer from Kazumo Sasaki, but came away empty handed.
The Spruce Kings continued to press for the equalizer near the midway mark of the period and Carter Hesselgrave thought he had it with a wicked shot from pointblank range but Johnson stretched out and flashed his trapper to deny the Kings centre with the save of the game.
They had a few more close calls in the final minute of the period and Johnson stood his ground to keep the Kings off the board.
The tone turned a but nasty in the third period. It started when Sebastien Bradshaw went shoulder-to-shoulder and flattened Kings winger Corson Maguire at centre ice with a clean hit. Hesselgrave felt badly for feeding his linemate a suicide pass and stepped in and dropped the gloves with Bradshaw in a spirited scrap clearly won by the Kings forward.
A few minutes later Kings winger Linden Makow nailed Livsics in the Langley end and the Latvian import went down hard on his head as the hit dislodged his helmet. Makow and Jacob Wingfield had a brief tussle but cooler heads prevailed. With only one goal on the board and so much on the line, both teams simmered down on the rough stuff and stuck to the rules.
“These games are so important and it definitely felt like a playoff game,” said Hesselgrave. “We had lots of chances and couldn’t bear down on some of them. We’re happy we got that one overtime point but we’re looking to keep the streak going of winning games and gaining points.”
Cummings scored the winning goal in Friday’s game and Hesselgrave is glad to see him healthy again after an injury-plagued season.
“He’s a very clutch player,” said Hesselgrave. “We’ve got a very resilient group and that’s a good thing to have especially coming down to the late stages of the season.”
Each team has six games left.
The Spruce Kings will have a full week to prepare for their next one March 16 when they host the Sherwood Park Crusaders for the first time ever in a Sunday matinee.
They head out for the last regular season roadtrip to play in Coquitlam, Chilliwack and Surrey (March 21-23).
They host the Powell Rover Kings (March 29-30) to wrap up the 54-game schedule.
Langley will play host to Chilliwack and Victoria next weekend, then travel to Alberta to play in Blackfalds (March 21) and Spruce Grove (March 22). The Rivermen will finish at home against Coquitlam and Chilliwack (March 28-29).
LOOSE PUCKS: Attendance was 1,124… The Spruce Kings alumni will play a game on Saturday, March 29 starting at 2:45 p.m. GM Mike Hawes says the club is working on getting a well-known NHL celebrity guest to skate in that game. The list of alumni players lined up includes Brandon Manning, Tyler Loney, David Keough, Lee J Leslie, Damien Ketlo, RJ Berra and Brad Camozzi, with guest coaches Stew Malgunas and Brent Williams.
