You can't fit a square peg in a round hole, but you can fill a crease with a big body.

That's the approach the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs are taking in light of recently losing top scorer Jace Hennig to the Coquitlam Express.

The club recently brought Maple Ridge native Michael Bell on board, after the 16-year-old spent time with the Western Hockey League's Everett Silvertips and more recently the Mission Icebreakers of the local junior B loop.

The six-foot-two, 205-pound forward has earned full marks in his limited action with the Chiefs so far, posting four points in four games including three goals last weekend.

"He's capable of being a big time goal scorer. He's a large human being for a 16 year old," said Chiefs coach Doneau Menard. "He's got intimidating size and he just doesn't take a shift off. He works extremely hard and he has presence - he's a physical guy, he's in your face and he's got a hard shot."

Bell figured prominently into the Chiefs' 7-4 win over the Valley West Hawks Saturday, scoring two power play goals while setting up shop in front of the net.

In a game that saw the Chiefs score six of their seven goals on special teams, the Northeast side also got markers from Coquitlam natives Jamie Waddington and Jeff Wight, Port Moody's Truman Gonzales and Port Coquitlam's Tim Chow.

"Our special teams saved our bacon in the first two periods and we knew we had to play a bit better than we did two periods before headed into the third," Menard said.

Game 2 of the home-and-home set saw the two teams settle for a 3-3 deadlock, with goals coming from PoCo's Brandon Volpe, Anmore native Nicholas Rasovic and Bell.

"I thought we played a really solid game. We dominated play for much of the first two periods and even part of the third."

The third-place Chiefs take on the Greater Vancouver Canadians this weekend.

sports@thenownews.com