If Las Vegas saw fit to place betting odds on BCHL games, the odds of the Chilliwack Chiefs beating the Prince George Spruce Kings in the opening round of this year’s playoffs would be steep.
In seven regular season meetings this year, the Chiefs have given few reasons to expect an upset and every reason to predict a quick series.
In those seven games, Chilliwack has lost six and tied one. The Spruce Kings shut the Chiefs out twice and won one game by an 8-2 count back in September.
But if you’re looking for a sliver of hope, here it is.
Three of the last four meetings were one-goal wins for Prince George, including Friday’s 2-1 final at Prospera Centre.
The most recent result was a tight 2-0 in Saturday’s season finale, also at Prospera.
You could argue that Chilliwack outplayed the Spruce Kings in those last two games and deserved a better fate.
It’s the job of Chilliwack head coach Jason Tatarnic to devise a plan to defeat a team that has given his Chiefs fits dating back to last season.
And it’s his job to convince his team that if they follow the plan they’ll win.
Can he do it?
“The biggest thing for us is when we have the opportunity to score the go-ahead goal, we have to score, and we’ll have a heavy focus on shooting and skills work this week,” the coach said. “Prince George will sit back and trap and clog the front of the net. They’ll block shots and when they get an opportunity they seem to make good on it, so we have to focus on eliminating their opportunities and finding a way to score goals on ours.”
By losing five of their last six games, the Chiefs doomed themselves to heavy travel in round one with no cushy and quick bus rides to Surrey or Langley.
They’ll be on the road for hours at a time getting to and from Prince George, but Tatarnic believes that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“We’ll go up the day before, so there’s no excuses that way,” Tatarnic said. “The travel gets a little hectic when it gets to games five, six and seven, but I think we’re a well conditioned hockey team and none of it bothers me at all.
“It’s just seven more hours on the bus than normal.”
See bchl.ca