Multiple award winners - Kevin Genoe, Jordy Christian and Zach Davies - show off a piece of their hardware.

The Prince George Spruce Kings put a wrap on their 2007/08 season and immediately started looking ahead to next year at the annual Volunteer Appreciation and Player Awards Banquet on Thursday night. With a large crowd in attendance consisting of volunteers, billet families, player families, board of directors, team staff, fans and of course the players; everyone was treated to a fantastic dinner put on by the Cariboo Steak and Seafood Restaurant. After dinner, the Spruce Kings recognized the contributions of its volunteers and players with Spruce Kings president, Darcy Buryn, opening the evening with a heartfelt speech that touched on all aspects of the season.

Buryn thanked and congratulated the many volunteers that stepped forward this season, he also recognized the fan support that was listed as one of only five arenas in the BCHL to see fan growth over the previous season. The president also talked about the accomplishments of this year’s young team, a team that had only two veterans of the RBC Royal Bank Cup host team. Touching on the expectations of the team for this season, Buryn acknowledged that the team met the primary goal it had set for the year by making it to the playoffs when picked to miss out. He also touched on the second goal to build on a young team for next season; the Spruce Kings could have a maximum of 20 returning players although with potential scholarships and major junior acquisitions the real total will be somewhat lower.

The first award of the night to be handed out was to recognize the services of one volunteer in particular, but all volunteers were acknowledge including three in particular. As a result of volunteering at the 2007 RBC Royal Bank Cup, Evelyn Oosterhoff and Karry MacIntyre were singled out for their contributions to fill in some key areas. Also recognized for her contributions to the Spruce Kings and to the sporting community in general, Marilyn Van Damme was recognized for the amount of time that she has given as a volunteer and off-ice official.

The award for Volunteer of the Year was presented to Dave Milne who has been with the team for over 25 years and has missed very few games, especially since retiring from the work force. Besides his commitment to the Spruce Kings, Milne also gives back to the community by volunteering with the Community Policing and Block Watch programs.

The second award presented is the newest award having only been introduced last year, the Craig Dziuballe Memorial Award for outstanding community service was presented by Craig’s mom. Dianne Dziuballe took a few minutes to thank the Spruce Kings organization for the creation of this award and also talked about how important the award was in memory of Craig. Before announcing the winner, she passed along a few words of advice for all the players in attendance to keep their sticks on the ice, their heads up and to play hockey. The winner of the award was Peter Funnell who represented the team at every community function whether it be playing floor hockey at an elementary school or serving lunch to the homeless at the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

The Most Improved Player of the Year award was handed out to Dan Correale. As the youngest member of the team, Correale often found himself up against some older, bigger and more experienced players in the league but was never afraid to work hard for the puck to make a play happen. Spruce Kings broadcaster, Ron Gallo, recapped two of Correale’s biggest goals of the year being his first and an unassisted tally against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs. The first goal came against the Vernon Vipers as a result of Correale standing in front of the net and tipping a point shot from Brandon Manning. On January 31st, the young centreman won a faceoff inside his own zone, carried the puck through the defenceman and beat the goaltender cleanly on a nice move to the blocker side.

The Most Inspirational Player of the Year was presented to a player that was described as a “giant among men” who was never afraid to battle for the puck and hit a player looking to force a turnover. His physical play would leave many others on the ice looking back in astonishment and he was penalized many times for being too physical. Sam Muchalla, playing in his first year in the BCHL is a lightweight tipping the scales at 140 lbs; despite his smaller size, Muchalla never missed a game scoring 14 goals and adding 27 assists while serving 30 penalty minutes and playing in all 60 regular season games.

Hockey fans in Prince George have long applauded a hard work ethic and the Spruce Kings have long embodied that ideal. In his speech earlier in the night, Darcy Buryn alluded to it by saying that the Spruce Kings are interested in players that are prepared to play as hard as they can on every shift of every game until there are no more games on the schedule. One player that does that was described as “fearless” because of his willingness to drop and block a point shot on the penalty kill and to drop the mitts if necessary no matter the opponent. The Coach’s Award or 7th Player Award was handed out to Joe Morgan.

The next award recipient was the first multiple award winner of the night. Playing in his second season with the Spruce Kings, this player doubled his previous season’s offensive output while shutting down the other team’s top lines. Picking up 11 goals and 22 assists, this player had 3 power play goals, 2 short handed goals and 3 game winning goals as well as the fastest goal to start a game in franchise history. Zach Davies tallied one of his game winning goals just 10 seconds into the game against the Quesnel Millionaires on January 5, 2008. Zach Davies picked up Defenceman of the Year and Most Dedicated Player Awards for his contributions to this year’s squad.

Balancing the passion for hockey and the desire to excel at a scholastic level is especially trying for players that find themselves many miles from home, imagine how tough it must be when you have to pack up your bags in mid-semester. This year’s Scholastic Player of the Year joined the Prince George Spruce Kings midway through the season on November 17th and quickly showed everybody a new level of focus. His telltale calling card before every game was the whistling of the wind as he skipped to loosen up. The same focus and determination that he brought to the rink was apparent in his school work; finishing with above 90% in physics at the end of his interrupted first semester, Kevin Genoe was on his way to doing the same thing with his save percentage. Genoe also picked up a second award as Playoff MVP after stealing a game from the Salmon Arm Silverbacks to bring the series back to the Coliseum.

The last award recipient came to Prince George when he could have gone anywhere and was asked on more than one occasion to leave the Spruce Kings for other teams. His loyalty to this team and his dedication to the game of hockey matches the intensity and desire of any Canadian hockey player. With a hockey heritage that can boast of three Olympic gold medals including the Miracle on Ice, Jordy Christian gave Spruce Kings fans someone to call their own if only for one season. Destined to play NCAA hockey next season at St. Cloud State, Christian finished this season as the top rookie in the BCHL and third overall in goals scored with 39. As play maker, he finished as the second highest rookie and tenth overall in the league with 45 assists. For total points, Christian was again the top rookie just 3 points shy of finishing in the top five in the league with 84 points.

As said by Ron Gallo while calling up Jordy Christian, "his signature stick will always bear his family name and Moorhead Minnesota can only be as proud of their son as we are to call him ours." After accepting three awards for Leading Scorer, Rookie of the Year and Regular Season MVP, Jordy then called up his team as a way of recognizing everybody’s contributions for his successes and the accomplishments of the team as a whole.