If there is one thing we have learned so far about Round 1 of the BCHL Playoffs, whatever you did in the regular season means absolute zilch.
Case in point, the Coastal East Division leading Prince George Spruce Kings find themselves on the brink of elimination after a 5-2 loss to the Langley Rivermen Friday night in front of 1,089 fans at the Kopar Memorial Arena.
Langley leads the best-of-seven quarterfinal series 3-2.
Before all the bad happened, the Spruce Kings got themselves off to a good start courtesy of Cooper Faughnan who squirted a puck through the five hole of Rivermen goaltender Eric Young for a 1-0 lead.
Any positive vibes that entered the rink were quickly washed away as Dmitrii Nazarov evened the score for Langley 90 seconds later as his point shot beat a sprawled-out Colin Reay.
Reay, the overage netminder for the Spruce Kings made a nice ten-bell save on Makaio Van Tassel point-blank prior to the puck getting worked back to the point.
Offense from the defense remained the key for Langley as AJ Valenti rippled the mesh past Reay 90 seconds later giving them a 2-1 edge. Valenti, slid across the blue line and used PG forward Michael Denney as a screen.
The wheels came off for the Spruce Kings in the second period due to some sloppy play.
PG got caught up ice on a transition rush where Nazarov slid the puck over to Van Tassell on a 2-on-1 but hit the post, luckily the puck slid across the crease back to the import defenseman who put it in the back of the yawning cage past a sprawled out Reay.
To make matters worse, the Spruce Kings made a series of errors on a sloppy line change while on a power-play. The entire unit of five players came off the ice leaving Reay no choice but to play the puck around his goal with Trent LeDrew just stepping on for his shift.
LeDrew attempted to corral the puck inside his own blueline, but it was stripped away by Darius Bachler who found Cale Colwell who converted a clean pass into the net to make it 4-1 Rivermen after two periods.
The Spruce Kings made a desperate push in the third period to make the game a little closer but to no avail.
PG head coach Brad Tesink elected to pull Reay with less than four minutes remaining for the extra-attacker. Despite a couple of nice chances, Connor Jalbert lifted the puck into the empty net.
Faughnan added his second goal of the contest in the dying seconds thanks a to a great power-move in the corner that beat Young.
Prince George outshot the Rivermen 31-29 and went 1-for-3 on the power-play while the visitors went 0-for-1.
Game Six is slated for Sunday at 5pm from the George Preston Arena.
Speaking of the upsets we touched on earlier in the article, the most shocking one was the West Kelowna Warriors who fell in five games to the Cranbrook Bucks.
The Warriors were 37 points better than the Bucks in the regular season.
Other eye-raising results include the Salmon Arm Silverbacks sweeping the Trail Smoke Eaters.
The Silverbacks finished 11 points back of Trail for second place in the Interior West Division.
In addition to that, the Sherwood Park Crusaders have a 3-2 series lead over the Blackfalds Bulldogs. Blackfalds finished second in the Interior East pennant race, twelve points up on the Crusaders.
Lastly, the Victoria Grizzlies are one win away from knocking off the Cowichan Valley Capitals – a team who sported the BCHL’s third best regular season record, finishing 24 points ahead of the Grizz in the Island Division.
Friday’s Game 5 saw Victoria import netminder Mikus Vecvanags make 78 saves in a 2-1 double overtime win against the Caps.
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