Kings and Eagles for Mainland Division Title
The top seeded Powell River Kings take on the Surrey Eagles starting Friday March 6th for the Mainland Division crown. The Kings led the division from wire to wire this season and look to complete the run with a best of seven series against the Eagles.
As with the first round I have some numbers for you and a breakdown as to some of the key match-ups.
Special Teams:
This is pretty much a no-brainer. Powell River’s power play was the best in the BCHL through the regular season and had great numbers against the Eagles in the season series.
Surrey:
Total 9-63 14.29%
Home 3-32 9.34%
Road 6-31 19.35%
Kings:
Total 22-75 29.33%
Home 12-36 33.33%
Road 10-39 25.64%
There are the stats between the two teams in their head to head games.
Edge: Powell River
Goaltending:
This is the category that is the hardest to nail down, Carson Chubak versus Tommy Tartaglione. Chubak came to Powell River and really solidified the goaltending position for Kent Lewis. This was the one category that the Kings were not great in to start the season but Chubak definitely solved that. Tartaglione was rock solid for the Birds in their opening round series win over Langley and will have to be again and then some against the highflying Kings.
Tommy Tartaglione:
Record:
Home: 3-3-0-0
Road: 0-4-0-0
Overall: 3-7-0-0
Goals-Against Average:
Home: 3.47
Road: 4.59
Overall: 4.03
Save Percentage:
Home: 96.67%
Road: 64.55%
Overall: 80.23%
Carson Chubak:
Record:
Home: 2-0-0-0
Road: 3-0-0-1
Overall: 5-0-0-1
Goals-Against Average:
Home: 1.50
Road: 2.30
Overall: 1.90
Save Percentage:
Home: 91.01%
Road: 94.16%
Overall: 92.59%
Even though Chubak’s numbers are better overall, I still think Tommy T has more experience and that should help him.
Edge: Even
Offense:
After that the numbers still favour the Kings, especially from an offensive standpoint. The Kings scored 43.1% of their 51 goals while on the power play. The Eagles put 37 goals into the Powell River goal, which 24.3% were with the extra skater.
Eric Vos led the scoring parade for Powell River (8G, 14A, 22Pts), Kyle Bodie (6,13,19) and Clay Harvey (9,8,17).
The Eagles were led by Adam Hartley (6G, 8A, 14Pts), Santiago (5,8,13) and Mike Henderson (3,6,9).
The Kings led the BCHL in scoring with 251 goals through the season.
Edge: Powell River
So by digesting some of those numbers it shows the Kings have the advantage over the Eagles. The home ice advantage should be a huge factor in this series. The Kings are dominant at home and the Eagles are better at home as well. It will come down to which team can steal some games on the road.
Colin Tiggelaar, the voice of the Surrey Eagles and the host of BCHL Live, will be blogging the Lower Mainland division during the 2008/09 season. Check back often for Colin's insights on the latest news from the Mainland.
