A huge divisional weekend is upon us for the Langley Rivermen, a weekend that could see the Mainland division help to take shape for a few teams. After a loss to the streaking Salmon Arm Silverbacks, a game played down 5 regular forwards on Tuesday, the Riv will look to bounce back big against two tough Divison Opponents, the Prince George Spruce Kings (Friday night 7pm @ The Lodge) and the Chilliwack Chiefs (Saturday 7pm @ Prospera Centre)
Mainland Divison currently looks like this; PG sits atop tied with Surrey at 54 points with a game in hand on Surrey, the Riv are 3rd with 52 and have a chance to ‘shuffle the deck’ a little this weekend. The Riv will welcome back forwards Angus Crookshank and Brendan Budy after their absence from Tuesday nights game against Salmon Arm to attend the CJHL Top Prospects game where Crookshank had 1 assist and Budy had 2.
The battle against PG thus far has been one for the home side, in both Langley and Prince George. First two meetings at The Lodge saw the Ris skate to 5-4 and 2-1 victories, before dropping both games up in PG 4-3 and 2-1 in overtime. Before the new year the Riv were back up in PG winning the first game 2-1 and losing the second 3-2 in overtime taking 3 of a possible 4 points in a tough arena. So far this season the Riv are 3-1-0-2 against the Spruce Kings and will look to improve on that record tonight as they currently sit ahead of the Riv in the tight Mainland Division.
“Its a big weekend any weekend, all teams are good competitive teams and can win on any given night, our approach won’t change, there is no added pressure by us and we are not going to do anything different. It comes down to execution and I feel like our team has done that all season long against top teams.”
Said Assistant Coach Stefano Ruscitti
We head into Chilliwack on Saturday which is familiar territory by now for the Riv just heading up highway 1. The Chiefs, are only 5 points behind the Rivermen for 3rd place currently with 2 games in hand and the Riv know this is a huge game down the stretch. So far this season the Riv are 5-1-0-1 against the Chiefs, the last meeting at the Prospera Centre saw the Chiefs hand the Rivermen a thumping 6-0 loss.
“I think thats the only real loss we have taken all season long where we gave effort but just weren’t good enough, we’ve done a great job of going into their building and embracing their fans and their energy and tried to use it to our advantage. Saturday is no different we will prepare and have been all week but are focused on closing the gap with PG now and extending it hopefully on Saturday against Chilliwack.”
Said Rivermen Defensemen Jake Livingstone
Some tickets are still available at the door for Friday nights game against the Prince George Spruce Kings. Puck drop 7pm !
