‘They’re an explosive group’
—
Both teams are coming off Wednesday wins on home ice. Chilliwack skated to a 2-1 victory over the Langley Rivermen while the Kings rebounded from a 1-0 deficit to record their second 4-1 victory of the season over the Trail Smoke Eaters.
“After giving up the first one of the game it really takes a lot of character to bounce back and get the next two and those were big goals for us going into the third,” said Neaton. “I think that goes with how we practice and how we train every day. We always have legs down the stretch where other teams might not always and I think we’re good at handling adversity.”
The Spruce Kings are the only BCHL team to have two wins against Chilliwack this season.
“They’ve been pretty consistent since then – a really good forward group and I think their forwards work well with each other,” said Spruce Kings head coach Adam Maglio.
“They’re an explosive group, they finish a lot of pucks, and I’ve seen them come back late in games from two- or three-goal deficits, so we have to play a full 60 against them.
“It’s nice playing them back-to-back. It’s kind of like a playoff series where you’re going on the road for two against them and we’ve got to be ready. At this time of year it’s going to be as close to a playoff-type game as you can get and we have to rise to the battle and compete out there.”
As good as their 10-4-0-0 home record is, the Kings have also been road warriors, a league-best 8-3-1-1 away from home. They came close to winning all three last weekend on their Island Division tour, settling for five of a possible six points.
“We’ve done a good job on the road, we have to play a bit different, just make sure we’re managing the puck well and especially against Chilliwack, we have to be good with the puck,” said Maglio.
The Chiefs have a vastly different roster from last year’s team that won the RBC Cup national junior A championship as hosts, after losing a seven-game opening-round series to the Spruce Kings. Fourteen of their everyday players, including defenceman Colton Kitchen of Prince George, are BCHL rookies. Nine of the team’s top 12 in scoring weren’t there last season.
One of those new recruits, Kevin Wall, a New York native who just signed an NCAA commitment with Penn State, is leading the BCHL scoring race with 21 goals and 41 points in 28 games.
Abbotsford native Harrison Blaisdell has been on a hot streak lately with seven goals and nine assists in his last 10 games. Blaisdell ranks second in team scoring with 18 goals and 17 assists for 35 points (fifth in the BCHL).
Chiefs forward Matt Holmes (Brown University), is also among the top 14 pointgetters in the BCHL with 31 points, including 11 goals. Holmes is two points ahead of Spruce Kings scoring leader Ben Brar, who has 18 goals and 11 assists for 29 points in 27 games.
Both teams have been getting solid goaltending. Neaton’s 1.93 goals-against average over 20 games leads the BCHL and his .913 save percentage ranks sixth. For the Chiefs, Mathieu Caron sports a 2.71 average (seventh in BCHL) through 20 games and his .914 save percentage is fifth in the league.
“I’m definitely seeing not much rubber a game and the rubber that I am seeing is from outside,” said Neaton. “Our D do a great job of collapsing the net, keeping things to the outside and letting me see pucks and I think they’ve been doing a phenomenal job in front of me and that’s increased my play.”
LOOSE PUCKS: Former Spruce Kings forwards Kyle Johnson and Blake Hayward will be playing this weekend in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the Friendship Four NCAA tournament, which starts today. Johnson skates for the Yale University Bulldogs, while Hayward plays for the Union College Dutchmen. The Boston University Terriers and University of Connecticut Huskies are the other teams involved in the two-day tournament. Hayward and Johnson were teammates last year in the Spruce Kings’ run to the BCHL final.