BCHL - Spruce Kings capture Doyle Cup

[thedestroyerofworlds]

Congrats to the PG Spruce Kings. 

 

The Spruce Kings went 16-1 through the BCHL playoffs to win the Fed Page Cup.  Then they only lost 2 games to the Brooks Bandits (hosting the Royal Bank Cup) who went 57-3 and scored 5.57 goals a game in their regular season (Alberta).

 

Hopefully, the Spruce Kings luck is better than their last time at the Royal Bank Cup (2007 as hosts).  The Spruce Kings were winners of the longest overtime game (semi-final) only to run out of gas in the final.

 

Spruce Kings capture Doyle Cup

Ted Clarke / Prince George Citizen

MAY 4, 2019 11:01 PM

The Spruce Kings celebrate their Doyle Cup championship after a 4-2 win over the Brooks Bandits Saturday at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.

- CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

 

The Prince George Spruce Kings saved their best for last, for their fans, and for the second time this season they are junior A hockey champions.

 

A three-goal surge in the third period gave the Spruce Kings a 4-2 win over the Brooks Bandits 4-2 and they claimed the Doyle Cup crown, winning the series 4-2 Saturday at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.

In their last hurrah at home before they embark on the national championship as Pacific champions. Chong Min Lee scored the winner for the Kings 15:17 into the third period, cashing in a 2-on-1 pass from linemate Ben Poisson. Patrick Cozzi put the victory on ice with a long shot into the empty Brooks net with 20 seconds left.

“I kind of felt like I was going to get a chance and I was waiting for that and as soon as Benny was driving the net I was waiting for that pass and he made a nice back-door pass,” said Lee, who had his family back home in Seoul, South Korea tuned in to late-morning webcast.

“We wanted it more than them, I’m pretty sure that’s why we won it today. As soon as we got the tying goal we knew we were going to get another one and we got it. We couldn’t win the Fred Page Cup in a home game so we needed this one. It’s so awesome to win it in a home game.”

There were about 2,100 fans who could not agree more.

“This is one helluva way to close out a season at home,” said Kings captain Ben Poisson. “Obviously this was the last game in front of sold-out crowd, it was quite something.” Down 2-1 to start the third period, the Kings were buzzing and pushed the pace furiously to start the period. Finn Williams, Poisson and Dustin Manz all had great chances to score but could not apply the finishing touches. Spurred by a sellout crowd of screaming, towel-waving fans, the Kings had all the momentum going in their favour when the tying goal came, 9:55 into the third.

Cozzi forced the puck in over the line surrounded by two Bandits and spun a long backhand pass over to Manz, who spotted Ben Brar standing all alone waiting for the tap-in. It was the first point of the series for Brar, the team’s second-leading pointgetter in the season.

“It was a pretty good time to break out of it,” said Brar. “It was a nice play by the boys and they found me, back door. It was just a huge goal for the team. We were on the bench talking about how we were going to win his game and we found a way. This team has found a way all season.”

The Kings kept pouring on the pressure after Brar scored and had the Bandits reeling when Nick Poisson started the play that led to Lee’s winner. The  younger Poisson dug the puck out of the corner and got to centre ice where he chipped a pass off the boards to his brother Ben who was in full stride as he entered the zone. As soon as he got the puck he spotted Lee open on the right side and fed him the pass and Lee had an open net to shoot at for the biggest goal of his 19-year-old life.

“Nick took a good hit to make the play and gave me a good pass for a 2-on-1 and I gave it to Chong and he did the rest,” said Ben Poisson. “He got really good shot and made no mistake and scored.”

The Spruce Kings had the early pressure but the Bandits struck first, just 3:25 in. Tyler Campbell came off the bench and joined the Brooks rush, taking a Nick Hale pass back to the blueline at full flight. He dragged the puck into the slot and filed away a puck in over goalie Logan Neaton’s shoulder.

The Kings evened it up a goal apiece before the period ended. Lucas Vanroboys gained the puck in his own end and fired a clearing shot off the boards and Corey Cunningham beat Bandits defenceman Luke Bast to the puck and got a shot on goal. The rebound came out between the hash marks and with Nolan Welsh standing in the way of defenceman Jordan Di Cicco, Vanroboys scooped up the puck and scored on a high shot. 

Three minutes into the second period, Bandits defenceman Ethan Lund took advantage of slow Spruce Kings line change and hit Mack Hancock with a cross-ice stretch pass and with three Bandits closing in on one King defender Hancock let go a high wrist shot from the right circle that sailed into the net.

The Kings locked it down the rest of the period and in the third period did not allow a single dangerous chance while outshooting the Bandits 11-4.

“It doesn’t get any better than this,” said Kings defenceman Dylan Anhorn. “We’ve got our eyes set on the national junior championship for sure but we’d like to enjoy this with our fans. Credit to Brooks, they’re an unreal team, they lost three games all season so we knew we had quite a test and we wanted to do it for our home fans here. We knew we had it in our group, we wanted to finish it tonight so we came out for the third period and got the job done. We trained all year for this moment and we showed it today.”

It was much tougher for the Spruce Kings to win the BCHL title and despite the apparent ease of winning the Fred Page Cup with a 16-1 playoff record it took them month of playoffs to get there. They clinched that trophy on the road in Vernon and that made winning the Doyle Cup at home that much sweeter. For the Kings players it was their way to reward the fans.

“It’s a pretty surreal feeling, honestly, and to do it front of these fans and give back to the community with how much they’ve supported us and been there for us means the world, just to be able to celebrate it with them,” said Kings goalie Logan Neaton.

“We just had to stick to our gameplan. We know what we need to do to be successful and we weren’t going to change anything, we were just going to lay our defensive style and create offence from it. (The Bandits) are a phenomenal hockey team and they deserve a lot of respect, it was a good battle, it was a great series.”

The Bandits averaged 5.57 goals per game while going 57-3 in the regular season but the Kings made it extremely difficult to score in the Doyle Cup. In the six games they potted just 11 goals and were held to just four in the three games in Prince George.

“It was a good series and hat’s off to them for coming away with it, we’re looking forward to next week,” said Bandits captain Nathan Plessis. “It was definitely our most fun matchup to play against this year. At times we were the better team in our building and at times here as well, but for the most part they came out of top.

“It was good to get a feel for these guys, they’re definitely a team we’ll see down the road knowing both teams are going to the national championship. It was an amazing atmosphere here to play in for them and we hope to get that from our fans as well.”

Both teams will move on to the five-team national championship, May 11-19 in Brooks, Alta. – the Kings as Team Pacific and the Bandits as the host team.

“It’s always nice when you earn your way to the championship,” said Kings head coach Adam Maglio. “Most team have to go through Doyle Cup and win to get to the nationals so this definitely builds confidence going into that championship, winning another series.

“They’re a very good team, they’re ranked Number 1 in the country all year and that the team we’re going to have to go through in the nationals to win.”

The Kings defence was depleted by injuries to veterans Jay Keranen and Liam Watson-Brawn and that put the onus on Anhorn, Layton Ahac, Nick Bochen, Max Coyle and Jason Chu to play additional minutes and they withstood the punishment and were a key factor in the series.

“They were playing a lot of minutes and I think they’re pretty happy to get this thing done in six and not have to go seven,” said Maglio.

The series pitted two closely-matched champions of their respective leagues and easily could have swung in the Bandits’ favour. Neaton’s shutout 2-0 win in Game 1 in Brooks set the tone and he was outstanding throughout the six games and would have been worthy of series MVP honours. He didn’t get tested often in Saturday’s clincher, making 22 saves, but he was there when the Kings needed him most.

Playing on home ice on a rink that’s 10 feet shorter than most, the Kings used that familiarity to their advantage, winning all three games in Prince George.

“It could have been a seven-game series and full marks to them, they were the better team in this building without question, we struggled to maintain leads in this building once we got them and when we were behind we just didn’t have enough pushback” said Bandits head coach Ryan Papaioannou. “I think it’s a good learning experience for our guys going into next week, we learned about the team we’re going to play and learn a little bit more about ourselves. I don’t think there was anything wrong about the series. It was two good teams and tough building to play in, great fans. We’d like to play these guys again in a meaningful game.”

The Kings bus leaves Wednesday for Brooks, Alta., where they play their first game at the national tournament on Sunday, May 12 against the Central champion Oakville Blades.

[Fanuck]

1 hour ago, thedestroyerofworlds said:

Congrats to the PG Spruce Kings. 

 

The Spruce Kings went 16-1 through the BCHL playoffs to win the Fed Page Cup.  Then they only lost 2 games to the Brooks Bandits (hosting the Royal Bank Cup) who went 57-3 and scored 5.57 goals a game in their regular season (Alberta).

 

Hopefully, the Spruce Kings luck is better than their last time at the Royal Bank Cup (2007 as hosts).  The Spruce Kings were winners of the longest overtime game (semi-final) only to run out of gas in the final.

 

Congratulations to the Kings! 

 

It's especially nice to see a community owned team do as well as they have the past two seasons. 

I was at last night's game and that old barn, the Coliseum, likely never saw something like that since the old PCJHL days!  It actually made up for the game/tournament you mentioned in 07 which I was fortunate enough to attend as well. 

 

Hard to believe they beat the #1 team in the country that handedly.   

 

Not gonna lie though,  I was sweating it a bit going into the 3rd dn 2-1.  

 

But just like they've been doing all year they put their work boots on and took it to the Bandits in the 3rd.

 

I'm not making any predictions for next week's tournament but I like the Kings chances just having dispatched the best team in the nation. Hopefully they get LWB and Keranen back by then.

[hammertime]

They were so dominant they deserved it.

[Fanuck]

Anyone else watching the NJAC finals game today?

 

Prince George Spruce Kings vs. Brooks Bandits.

 

Essentially a 1gm repeat of the Doyle Cup.

 

Let's hope it's the same result! 

 

Go Kings Go! 

[viking mama]

Watched it, yes! PG stormed back late after a somewhat tentative start. The Brooks Bandits had superior energy & execution early. Pretty hard to comeback from 0-3 down to the Bandits, but not impossible. I felt that if another 5 minutes had been tacked onto this game, PG might have reached the prize.

 

Congratulations to Brooks for making the most of their opportunities through out the final game & besting our BCHL Champs for the win.

 

I’m already looking forward to next season & seeing the young Chilliwack Chiefs re-tool & do much better at this play-off thing, with the added experience & little more maturity there. But, it was no small thing falling early to these Spruce Kings in the 2nd-round, when PG was such a hard-working, tough-to-play-against, well-coached Championship-quality team all season long from start to finish!

 

Have a very recuperative & restful summer after your guts stop feeling a little sore after all of this, fellas. Many of us are looking forward to seeing some of you at the next BCHL showcase, in September. Hearty & respectful thanks for representing the BCHL-brand & the (PG) Spruce Kings organization so very very well! 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2019 by viking mama