West region teams dominate at home in weekend CIHL action

The top four teams in the Central Interior Hockey league dominated eastern region teams (if you consider Mackenzie and east team) in Dec. 17-18 play in the Central Interior Hockey League. When the ice shavings had settled, there was a change at the top, as the Houston Luckies reclaimed first place with two devastating wins over the Mackenzie Moose, by scores of 7-0 on Saturday and 13-1 on Sunday. Houston now has a two point lead over the idle Terrace River Kings, but both teams have now played 15 games and this top-spot rivalry may not be settled until the last weekend of the season when the two teams battle it out in a doubleheader in Terrace on January 28-29. The Smithers Steelheads meanwhile, kept their options open with two big wins over the luckless and last-place Williams Lake Stampeders, 9-4 on Saturday and 8-4 on Sunday. Smithers picked up all four points to move to 19 points, three behind second-place Terrace. Steelheads have one game against Terrace remaining, at home on January 8, and still have one game in hand. While they have two games against 100 Mile House, two against MacKenzie and one in the "hot house" in Houston January 14. Terrace has a difficult road ahead, the games v Smithers, two against Kitimat, at home Dec 29 and January 29 (at Tamitik) and the two against Houston to wind up the regular season. Meanwhile the Kitimat Ice Demons got back on the winning track with two strong efforts against the leg-weary 100 Mile House Bears with a win 9-1 on Saturday and a 14-1 blowout on Sunday in which a healthy Kitimat out-shot the Bears 75 to 27. So it looks as if they playoff picture will not be truly clear until the end of the season at the end of January. But the playoff teams will almost certainly be Houston, Terrace, Smithers and Kitimat. Terrace and Houston both have five remaining games, Kitimat four and Smithers six, so some position juggling could still take place.