Mills make it look easy in Prince George

What a difference a day makes. The real Quesnel Millionaires travelled to Prince George Tuesday and dispensed with the Spruce Kings handily, leaving town with a 4 − 1 win in their pockets.

After the three-loss weekend, the Mills players and coaches spent the day Monday in meetings, individually and as a team.

What was clear to coaches and players after the day of meetings was the need for better work habits, a higher level of confidence, and the need to stick to the system, Watson said.

The Mills that took to the ice Tuesday in Prince George were all that and more.

For the first time in four games, the Mills did not give up the first goal.

Mills netminder Luke Siemens, who turned back 27 of 28 shots looked shakey at first, fighting the puck, but gained confidence as the game went on.

“He rebounded last night,” Watson said.

“His angles were a lot better.”

The Mills went ahead 1 − 0 on Darick Ste-Marie,’s sixth goal of the season, at 16:40 of the first period.

Ste-Marie found a loose puck during a scramble in front of the net and slapped the puck passed Spruce Kings netminder Kyle Nielsen.

Assists went to Skyler Smutek and Sam Higgins.

Now the Mills were talking to each other on the ice, some even dared to smile, the fun was back in the game.

The Mills took a 2 − 0 lead early in the second period when Tyler French took a loose puck at the blueline and fired a wrist shot five hole that surprised Nielsen.

French’s goal proved to be the eventual game winner.

With a two-goal lead, the old Mills would have taken a break, a habit that has cost them games in the past.

But last night was different, the Mills kept coming at the Spruce Kings.

“We talked about keeping the effort up,” Watson said.

Just over a minute after French’s goal, Tyler Holst scored on the power play firing a rebound off a Spencer Graboski shot high stick side on Nielsen.

The smiles kept getting bigger, until the Mills were called for two penalties just over a minute apart.

The first penalty went to Mitch Galbraith for roughing after the whistle.

Fiestiness, Watson said, was something that he felt his team had been missing as of late, and so the Galbraith penalty was a positive.

With Galbraith sitting in the penalty box, the Mills were pinned in their own end and Mills assistant captain Eliot Raibl took a hooking penalty.

With a two-man advantage it took the Spruce Kings all of 33 seconds to notch their first goal.

Brad Bourke tallied the goal for Prince George with a shot from the blueline that found its way behind Siemens who was screened on the play.

That’s as close as the Spruce Kings would get as the Mills kept the pressure on, getting pucks deep in the Spruce King’s zone and tenacious forechecking.

The home team never had a chance to gather momentum.

Smutek put the game away for the Mills when his shot from the point nicked off a skate in front of the net and snuck between Nielsen’s pads.

With a goal and an assist, Holst, who played a fiesty game earned the first star of the game and kudos from his coach.

“I thought Holsty set the tone.”

Reflecting back on the three losses the Mills suffered over the weekend, Millionaires coach Glen Watson thought his team, “lacked a presence.”

To address the situation, Watson dressed Catlin Bigsnake.

At 6’ 5”, 275-lbs, Bigsnake can’t help but be a presence on the ice.

The frustrated Spruce Kings tried to make their presence felt in the third period, but Bigsnake, Mitch Galbraith and Brett Howe stepped up, dropped their gloves and made sure that didn’t happen.

The Mills now turn their attention to Friday and Saturday when they will host the Williams Lake Timberwolves and the Vernon Vipers at the Vault, at 7:30 p.m.

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