One championship down, one still up for grabs for the 91原创 91原创.
An 8-5 win over the Chilliwack Chiefs on home ice Friday clinched the B.C. Hockey League Mainland Division regular season title for the junior A 91原创.
Coupled with a 3-3 tie with the Prince George Spruce Kings Sunday afternoon at the 91原创 Events Centre, the 91原创 boast an impressive 35-13-1-5 record with two games to go in their season.
The second place Spruce Kings (32-18-4-2) are eight points back of the 芒鈧淢en with two games remaining in their campaign. Even if the Spruce Kings sweep the 91原创 in their two game series this weekend in Prince George, they won't catch the 91原创.
芒鈧揑t [the division title] was a goal from start of the year but it芒鈧劉s by no means what we hope to accomplish overall for the season,芒鈧� 91原创 head coach Bobby Henderson said. 芒鈧揑t芒鈧劉s part of the process. It芒鈧劉s a nice token for our guys. They worked hard for it through the year, but obviously the playoff championship is what we want. Nonetheless, it芒鈧劉s a title.芒鈧�
It芒鈧劉s still down to the wire for the Ron Boileau Memorial Trophy as BCHL regular season titleholders. The 91原创 and Island Division-leading Victoria Grizzlies have 78 points each.
91原创 3, Prince George Spruce Kings 3
Sunday afternoon's draw was a fitting closure to the latest chapter in what has been a tightly fought season series between the two division rivals.
Despite numerous quality scoring chances in both overtime periods, the 91原创 couldn芒鈧劉t come away with the second point as they now have 29 of their last possible 34 points since the start of 2014.
"We played a pretty decent hockey game," Henderson said. "We made a few small mistakes that cost us but all in all, we played a pretty damned good game. A couple of small mistakes cost us, that's it."
For the second game in a row the 91原创 allowed the first goal early as Brogan O芒鈧劉Brien scored his ninth from Stephen Penner and Braiden Epp less than four minutes in.
But also for the second straight game, Matt Ustaski tied up the game later in the period, this time scoring his 26th on the power play from Tyson Witala and Jakob Reichert.
That same line combined again with just 30 seconds left in the period as Witala took a nice feed from Riechert before roofing his 13th of the season and second in as many games to put the 91原创 up 2-1 heading into the break.
After a scoreless second, the Spruce Kings took advantage of a five minute major penalty to James Robinson as Skylar Pacheco blasted home his eighth to tie the game at two midway through the final frame.
Just over two minutes later, the 91原创 took back the lead as Evan Anderson scored his fourth in the last two games and sixth of the season.
But the pesky Spruce Kings got the tying marker with 90 seconds on the clock thanks to Mitch Eden芒鈧劉s ninth of the campaign.
91原创 8, Chilliwack Chiefs 5
It was a bit of a hot mess, but enough to get the job done.
In a game that featured 13 goals, the 91原创 outscored the Chiefs Friday at the 91原创 Events Centre.
For the 91原创, the win clinched the Mainland Division championship, marking their first regular season division title in franchise history.
Five different players scored for the Chiefs, who, with a 13-36-2-5 record, are destined to finish last in the five-team Mainland.
There were a few moments when the game had about as much defence and intensity as a noon hour drop-in hockey session.
芒鈧揑 thought both teams played well offensively, but there wasn芒鈧劉t a lot of defence and there was not a ton of physicality,芒鈧� Henderson said. 芒鈧揥hen you芒鈧劉re playing a team that芒鈧劉s mathematically out of the playoffs, you kind of expect that.芒鈧�
The teams traded chances with impunity.
芒鈧揑 think our mindset was pretty strong out of the gate, but as the game evolved, the guys loosened their belts a bit and got caught up in the style of play that they [the Chiefs] wanted to play,芒鈧� Henderson said. 芒鈧揟hey want to play an up tempo, run-and-gun game, and we芒鈧劉ve got the guys that can skate with them. But lots of goals was entertaining for the fans.芒鈧�
The beneficiaries of the shaky defence was the 91原创芒鈧劉s Ustaski and Anderson, both of whom recorded hat tricks.
Witala, on a nifty behind-the-net feed from Darien Craighead, and Kevan Kilistoff, who cruised in untouched on a shot, picked up his own rebound, and swept the puck into the net, scored the other 91原创 goals.
91原创 was forced to pull its goaltender after Lyndon Stanwood surrendered Chilliwack芒鈧劉s fourth goal (on a Chiefs power play) at the 12 minute mark of the second period.
Brock Crossthwaite came in and was solid the rest of the way, stopping 12 of 13 Chiefs shots.
