Austin Spiridakis was only 15 years old when he caught the eyes of the college hockey recruiters at Quinnipiac University.
Had there been an audience present Saturday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, the loyal supporters of the Prince George Spruce Kings would have been impressed with what they saw from the now-18-year-old right winger.
Making his Spruce Kings’ debut in what turned out a 5-1 preseason win over the Merritt Centennials , at least in the early going, everything the St.. Albert, Alta., native did seemed to turn to gold. Before four minutes had ticked off the clock, Spiridakis already had a goal and an assist.
Playing on a line with 20-year-old BCHL veteran Christian Buono and 19-year-old centre Connor Bowie, on loan from the WHL Cougars, the Spiridakis line set the tone. Pointman Colton Cameron was the beneficiary of their offensive-zone hijinks, launching a high snapper that got through the screen his forward teammates were putting up in front of goalie Josh Dias, which opened the scoring just 53 seconds in.
Not long after that, that line showed perfect synchronicity for the second goal of the game at the 3:42 mark. Buono chipped the pick ahead to Bowie, who spun a backhand pass into the slot for Spiridakis and he buried a low shot into the net.
Kings head coach Alex Evin wasn’t happy with the collective efforts of his team in their 2-1 loss to Merritt in their Oct. 25th encounter, and his troops obviously got the message and came to the rink Saturday ready to play.
“Our linemates were clicking right off the start and those first two shifts were pretty fun, two goals there, it was an awesome start to the game,” said Spiridakis. “I got my legs under me and it just felt great.”
Spiridakis has been hobbled by a knee injury that was bothering him during the off-season and forced him to miss the first month of training camp. He suffered the injury last November while playing in his second BCHL season with the Alberni Valley Bulldogs. Saturday’s game was his first test and so far, so good. He was aggressive on the puck and went after opponents in the corners with reckless abandon. He’s hoping for many more games like that to come with his new team before he heads off to college next season.
“My first two years were just learning how to play and fit in with the league and I definitely feel more confident this year and want to take charge this year,” said Spiridakis, who committed to Quinnipiac right around the time former Spruce Kings star forward Ethan de Jong signed with the Connecticut school.
“I’ve been loving it so far, it’s a great group of guys and we just get along very well. We’re a tight-knit group and you could see out there how we play. We know where each other is going to be on the ice and it/s starting to come together. It was a long period of just practicing and seeing how long I could make it in practice but now I’m ready to go.”
Trailing 2-0, the Cents cut the lead in half midway through the first on a rebound from Ben Ward. The five-foot-seven centre found a seam standing just off the post beside goalie Jordan Fairlie.
The Kings increased the lead to 4-1 with a pair of shorthanded goals that bookended the second period. Andrew Seaman scored his third of the preseason, 1:18 in, taking advantage of a bad hop off the lively end boards at Rolling Mix which gave goalie Dias trouble. The puck jumped off his stick as he went back to try to trap it and Seaman raced in and fired off a backhander that hit the goalpost and dropped in behind the line, but no goal was indicated and the play went on for another 72 seconds before the officials conferred at the next stoppage of play that it was indeed a goal.
The Kings were killing another penalty late in the period when defenceman Mason Waite turned on the jets to score the prettiest goal of the night. He took the puck at centre and put the deke on Talon Zakall before ripping a shot through the legs of Dias.
The 20-year-old Waite, who signed with St. Lawrence University over the summer, can pivot on a dime while cradling the puck on his stick and nobody was blaming Zakall for taking the bait and shifting towards the centre of the rink while Waite went the other way to get free on the breakaway. Waite scored seven goals in 51 games in his rookie BCHL season with the Kings but none of those were the holy-cow-dangle type patented by Bobby Orr he saved Saturday for the Cents with less than a second left in the period.
“It was good to get a three-goal lead going into the third, they cheated off the draw a little bit and the puck just kind of popped out, so I took it down the ice and was able to beat the defenceman wide and tuck it in 5-hole,” said Waite.
“It was definitely deflating for them and a huge energy boost for us.”
Former Centennial Hunor Torzsok capped the scoring in the third period.
The Kings had a power-play goal waived off midway through the second period when Corey Cunningham used his arm to pass the puck to linemate Rowan Miller.
Buono, who played for Merritt last season, finished with three assists as the game’s first star.
Shots favoured the Spruce Kings 32-19.
Fairlie wasn’t tested often while improving to 2-0 in exhibition play but made a couple point-blank saves off Zack Dallazanna and Jake McLean to keep the Kings ahead 3-1 while the Kings were killing Fairlie’s delay-of-game penalty.
The Kings have now won three of the four preseason games against Merritt. They’ll meet again Nov. 21 in Merritt. The Cents will travel to Prince George for a season-opening weekend set Dec. 4-5.
BCHL preseason
Saturday summary
Cents 1 at Spruce Kings 5
First Period
1. Prince George, Cameron 1 (Spiridakis, Buono) 0:53
2. Prince George, Spiridakis 1 (Bowie,Buono) 3:42
3. Merritt, Ward 2 (Orchard, Stuart) 11:28
Penalties – Dallazanna ME (boarding),Bowie PG (charging) 17:55, Miller PG (tripping) 19:59.
Second Period
4. Prince George, Seaman 3 (Buono) 1:30 (sh)
5. Prince George, Waite 2 (Seaman) 19:59 (sh)
Penalties – Torzsok PG (hooking) 2:49, Valente ME (double kneeing) 6:34, Fairlie PG (delay of game, served by Spiridakis) 13:25. Isaksson ME (misconduct) Bowie PG (holding) 19:46.
Third Period
6. Prince George, Torzsok 1 (Klein) 11:23
Penalties – Bhabra PG (interference) 4:24, Marlow ME (misconduct),Gabruch PG (misconduct) 5:09, Valente ME (holding) 5:18, Dallazanna (unsportsmanlike conduct) 14:08, Marlow ME (holding), Main PG (holding) 18:08.
Shots on goal by
Merritt 8 7 4 -19
Prince George 15 12 10 -32
Goal – Merritt, Dias (L,0-3, 32-28); Prince George, Fairlie (W,2-0, 19-17).
Referees – Tyler Garden, Bobby Jo Love; Linesmen – Anthony Maletta, Jason Mager.
