Kings reflect on their best-ever season
The unexpectedly long roller-coaster ride is over. Sure was fun while it lasted. The Prince George Spruce Kings’ season ended three wins shy of a trophy celebration Thursday night in Wenatchee, Wash., where the Wenatchee Wild beat the Kings 3-0 to win the Fred Page Cup as champions of the B.C. Hockey League.
The Spruce Kings went 24 games deep into the playoffs, by far their best BCHL postseason performance. That included two Game 7 wins over divisional opponents Chilliwack and Surrey and a Coastal Conference championship over Powell River before they ran into a Wenatchee team that was too fast, too efficient and too ready to unleash its killer instinct in the five-game final series. A pair of power-play goals from Wild defenceman Zak Galambos and an empty-netter made all the difference in Game 5.
“They obviously wanted to close it out, they put their best foot forward and they really deserved it, we got outplayed but we still be proud of the effort we put forward even though the result wasn’t there,” said Kings centre Kyle Johnson. “I’m really proud of what we’ve done as a team this year, it’s been really fun working with a great group of guys and I’m just trying to enjoy every minute now.”
An early power-play goal set the stage and Wenatchee controlled the game for most of the opening two periods Thursday but still the Wild led by only one goal after 40 minutes.
“We knew we were still in it, even though we hadn’t played our best game to that point, and there was still hope so we were pushing hard,” said Johnson. “We focused all year on being resilient and we did that right to the bitter end.”
Losing Game 3 in Prince George double-overtime was a killer for the Kings. They did win Game 4 the following night but it was a nearly-impossible task coming back from a 3-1 series deficit, playing a Wild team that has yet to lose on home ice in the playoffs.
“It would have been a lot different coming back to P.G. for Game 6 with home ice in that game and then making it a best-ofone series and then anything could have happened,” said Johnson.
When head coach Chad van Diemen left the team a year ago for family reasons, general manager Mike Hawes made the decision to bump 31-year-old Adam Maglio into the big chair from his role as associate coach and that move worked out brilliantly for the Kings. Working with associate coach Alex Evin, Maglio instilled his own work ethic into his players. They fed off the fresh approach he brought in his efforts to make the team better and that resulted in the first regular season title in the Kings’ 22-year BCHL history and they won two more banners in the playoffs with their Mainland and Coastal Conference titles.
Key additions Chays Ruddy, Blake Hayward, Dustin Manz, Patrick Cozzi, Evan DeBrouwer, Dylan Anhorn, Jay Keranen and rookie-of-the-year candidate Layton Ahac blended well with the returning group and made the Kings a difficult team to play.
“There’s a lot that goes into having a successful hockey team and it’s not always just being the most talented group of guys,” said Johnson. “We certainly have a lot of talent but we have a lot character too that’s gone through big moments and that helped us in times like Game 7 with Chilliwack and being down 3-1 (in the series) against Surrey.”
So did their fans. Sellout crowds became the norm at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena in the third and fourth rounds and the Spruce Kings were the talk of the town. People showed their love for the community-owned team and provided a much-needed financial boost that will pay for recruiting trips for the coaches and help keep the Kings competitive.
“It sure was nice, especially in the later rounds if the playoffs to see the old barn full down there on Dominion Street and the fans really supporting this team,” said Hawes. “I know we’ll have a very similar team next year that works extremely hard and I sure hope the fans that came out of the woodwork to support this group comes back next year.”
“The support was unbelievable and that gets you through tough games at home,” added Maglio.
“We wish we could have got them another game and we’re feeling a little down because of that but that support was so wellreceived by our players and our staff.”
The Kings split their trip up so they left from Wenatchee right after Thursday’s game and made it as far as Osoyoos, and after a brief hotel room sleep they were back on the bus for the nine-hour trip to Prince George. For several players, Johnson included, it was their last junior roadtrip.
The five 20-year-olds – goalie Evan DeBrouwer, defencemen Ruddy, Tyson Slater and Oliver Lester and forward Jarod Hovde – are graduating the junior ranks. Yale recruit Johnson is among four Spruce Kings who will be playing college hockey in the U.S. next season. Also bound for NCAA teams in 2018-19 are forwards Ethan de Jong (Quinnipiac), Hayward (Union) and DeBrouwer (Arizona State). Forwards Manz (Lake Superior State) and Cozzi (Colorado College) have deferred for another season, which means they’re coming back to the Spruce Kings, as are four regulars on defence – Liam Watson-Brawn (Colgate), Ahac (Ohio State), Anhorn and Keranen. Up front, they will also return Ben Poisson, Spencer Chapman, Nolan Welsh, Chong Min Lee, Brady Bjork, Sam Anzai, Cory Cunningham and, possibly, Ben Brar. Goalie Bradley Cooper didn’t get lot of game action as backup to the team MVP DeBrouwer, but made the most of what he was given with four shutouts in 15 games and he’ll challenge for the starter’s job next season.
They obviously wanted to close it out, they put their best foot forward and they really deserved it, we got outplayed...
— Kyle Johnson, Spruce Kings centre
Forward Craig MacDonald is coming up from the Cariboo Cougar midget ranks, along with homegrown defenceman Brennan Malgunas, while promising blueliner Nick Bochen is the latest arrival from the Burnaby Winter Club talent pipeline.
The returning group will have 24 games of invaluable playoff experience to draw upon. With nine players having locked up scholarships and more are likely to be announced in the next few months, this year’s Spruce Kings team and the success it had has changed the culture of junior A hockey in Prince George, which will only help Hawes and the coaches recruit talented players.
“It was a special group this year and we pushed really hard and the group sacrificed individual rights for team rights and at the end of the day we won because of that kind of stuff,” said Maglio.
“You need the right guys for the right fit and we had that this year and we’re really proud of the group. It’s about maintaining that winning culture and moving forward, we made huge steps this year. We’re certainly on the right track, we came up a little short, but we’ll be hungry next year to get it done.
“We’re going to lose a lot of key guys, especially all four of the 20-year-olds, and we need to replace them and find that leadership to help out with our group, but we’re certainly happy with what we have coming back. We have a talented group with playoff experience now, they’ve almost played half a season in the playoffs.”
Signs continued to point to a productive season when the Kings kept winning and remained a firstplace team in December when Johnson, their captain, and de Jong, their best two-way forward, left the team for an extended period to play in the World Junior A Challenge. Suspensions in the playoffs resulted in eight more man-games lost, but they didn’t miss a beat. Aside from Poisson’s spleen injury, which sidelined him for two months at the end of the season, the Kings stayed healthy. Considering all the travel they do as the BCHL’s northernmost team, that’s a credit to the training staff, led by strength and conditioning coach Shelby Ballendine and trainers Rick Brown and Steve Oslund, with a dose of good faith thrown in by team chaplain Jim Brown.
“We’ve had some years where we’ve lost over 150 man-games (to injury) and this year we were real fortunate and that played a big factor in our success,” said Hawes.
“It takes a lot of people pushing in the right direction to have success in this league. The league has evolved so much in the the last 10 years and I think our program has evolved as well and hopefully this is something we can keep going for a long time now. We’ve got the program now to the point where everybody who comes here to play absolutely loves it and tells everybody what a great place it is and that spreads quickly and we’re getting calls from advisors in NCAA schools who want to send their recruits to us.”