Chiefs shut down Kings in opener
It took them nine B.C. Hockey League games to do it, but the Chilliwack Chiefs finally figured out how to beat the Prince George Spruce Kings.
The Chiefs made it count in the time of the season that matters most – the playoffs.
They blanked the Spruce Kings 3-0 Friday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, spanking the division champions to draw first blood in the best-of-seven Mainland Division semifinal series.
After seven losses and tie in the regularseason series the Chiefs beat their Mainland rivals at their own game, smothering them with blanket coverage on defence. Adam Berg, with a goal and an assist, Will Calverley and Tommy Lee took care of the offence and Daniel Chenard was flawless in goal, stopping 18 shots for his first career BCHL shutout.
It was a happy homecoming for Bryan Allbee, the 20-year-old Chiefs defenceman, who was born and raised in Prince George and came to the rink with his own cheering section. Allbee assisted on Lee’s goal and came close to scoring on a Chilliwack power play late in the second period.
“It was a great game, they’re great team over there and they play well and we just capitalized on our chances,” said Allbee, who played for the Spruce Kings last season after three seasons in the WHL with Seattle and Kootenay.
“We played well defensively and contained them for the most part but they’re a really strong team and it’s going to take an effort like that every night to beat these guys. Both teams pride themselves on keeping pucks to the outside and there weren’t too many great chances and we got lucky on ours.”
The Chiefs scored on their second shot on goal, after the Kings’ power play had come up empty. Skyler Brind’Amour tested Evan DeBrouwer first, snagging a puck that bounced off the end boards, Seconds later, the son of former NHL’er Rod Brind’Amour put a close-in shot off the post and Adam Berg cruised in to pot the rebound for a 1-0 lead, 5:26 into the game.
DeBrouwer was forced to come up with at least five quality saves in the opening period as the Chiefs outshot the Kings 11-7. Chenard kept it a one-goal game with a brilliant pad save to rob Ben Brar from point-blank range, set up perfectly by Blake Hayward from behind the goal line.
The Chiefs went up 2-0 with a shorthanded goal just 35 seconds into the second period. Berg forced Kings defenceman Liam Watson-Brawn to cough up the puck in the corner and it skipped out to Calverley, who roofed a shot in before DeBrouwer had time to shoot across the crease to stop it.
The Chiefs got out of the middle period unscathed and they deserved it. They put up a wall in front of Chenard and rarely allowed the Kings to set up for business in the offensive end. At the other end of the ice, DeBrouwer was by far the busier goalie, especially with the Chiefs applying sustained pressure on their second power-play chance of the game 15 minutes into the period. He made three more quality saves, the best when he came out to challenge Allbee, who cruised in from the point to let go hard slapper. The shots were 21-14 Chilliwack after two periods.
The third period could not have started much worse for the Spruce Kings. Twelve seconds into the period, Chays Ruddy stuck out his hip and tripped Chefs forward Corey Andonovski as he crossed the blueline carrying the puck. Four seconds later in a scrum along the boards, Kings defenceman Dylan Anhorn high-sticked Calverley and the Chiefs did not waste the two-man advantage. They had their opponents scrambling in their own zone and despite a couple of timely shot blocks from the Kings’ defence they could not prevent Lee from adding to the count. He was standing just off the post without a King in sight and Allbee rifled a pass that Lee one-timed into the net to make it 3-0.
“That was a really disappointing effort for our group, obviously we had all the energy and excitement coming into this game and our execution fell short,” said Kings captain Kyle Johnson. “We just didn’t make plays under their pressure and that’s what it came down to, we couldn’t play our game tonight and we’re going to have to be better tomorrow. We didn’t have our minds right tonight and that showed in the way we made plays with the puck and how we managed the game. “Once we get our minds on and relax and trust our abilities out there we’ll be fine and we’ll take the series over. They were a better team tonight but it’s a seven-game series.”
Decked out in their eye-black war paint, the Chiefs didn’t exactly endear themselves to the pro-Spruce Kings crowd of 1,286 early in the game when they got possession in their own zone and waited for about a half-minute without moving the puck, trying to trap one of the Spruce Kings out of position. The boos from the crowd for coach Jason Tatarnic’s early-game tactic nearly turned to cheers when a pass skipped over the stick of Chiefs defenceman Jake Gresh right to Dustin Manz, who was all alone with the puck but put the shot wide.
But the Chiefs weren’t there to entertain – winning the series is all they care about and they’re off to a great start.
“I thought we played well and we’ve been playing well near the end of the season and holding teams under 25 shots for awhile now,” said Tatarnic. “But at the same time, they’re a good hockey team and don’t let that game fool you, they’re still the favourites to win this round and we have to come out with the same effort as we did tonight because they’ll be coming hard tomorrow.”
The Kings have one of the youngest teams in the BCHL and general manager Mike Hawes said they might have come down with a case of the jitters in their BCHL playoff debut.
“Their goaltender played well and they played well as a team defensively and we certainly need more time in the offensive zone and more puck possession and some more pucks towards the net (Saturday) night,” said Hawes. “We’ve got a young group so it was a bit of learning curve tonight and I know we’ll be much better tomorrow.”
The teams will be back on the same ice for Game 2 tonight. Game time is 7 p.m. The best of-seven series switches to Chilliwack for Games 3 and 4 Monday and Tuesday.