The Prince George Spruce Kings and Quesnel Millionaires are in town this weekend to test their mettle against a couple of other northern hockey clubs, and maybe, if there’s time, their coaches might also spend a little time renewing old acquaintances.

Naturally, the coaches of both B.C. Hockey League teams will be checking out their players and seeing who’s a keeper and which ones they can toss back. That’s at the top of the priority list for both BCHL teams, as well as for the other two clubs involved in Face Off Fever 2, the Grande Prairie Storm and the Dawson Creek Rage.

With the Rage’s season set to start Sept. 23 and the other three clubs to open their regular seasons next weekend (Sept. 10-12), all the clubs will be trimming their rosters from the 30-odd players they are presently carrying.
The Storm and Rage previously tangled Tuesday night in Grande Prairie and Wednesday in Dawson Creek’s EnCana Events Centre.

The Storm will take on the Spruce Kings this afternoon (3 p.m.) and the Rage meet the Millionaires at 7 p.m. this evening.

Tomorrow, the Millionaires are in the afternoon match opposite the Storm, and the Spruce Kings and Rage play at 7 p.m.

The Rage, with a roster made up mostly of kids out of major midget, should match up well against the Spruce Kings as the Prince George club has brought in many new faces after a disappointing 18-37-1-4 record last season.

“I think we will be pretty even as far as rosters,” said Prince George coach and general manager Ed Dempsey, adding that some of his new players have played Jr. A before, but the bulk of the new arrivals are from the Jr. B or major midget ranks – much like the brand new Rage.

“We don’t have many returnees. We only have eight returning players. We are looking to fill a number of spots. We really didn’t have the season that we wanted to have last year, and we had the opportunity to return up to 16 guys. But after the season we had last year we thought it was time to clean house and we have done that.”

The Millionaires, on the other hand, were better at 22-32-0-6. They have 14 returnees, most of whom will be in the line-up this weekend along with close to 20 other kids who are looking to impress the coaches.

But a player shouldn't assume he has a spot on the roster just because he is returning.

“No one has a place on this team unless he is a 40-goal scorer,” said Quesnel assistant coach Brian Kozak.
In the small world of Jr. A hockey, the bench bosses who will be here this weekend have coached against each other numerous times and will probably spend some time chatting hockey.

And now that Rage coach Scott Robinson is in a completely different league, his former rivals are looking forward to seeing how he does as he guides the lone Canadian club in the North American Hockey League.

“We know Scott (Robinson) and Matty (assistant coach Matt Hughes) pretty well and we are hoping for them to have a successful run in Dawson Creek,” said Dempsey.