Terrace River Kings extend league lead to five points

The Terrace River Kings surged to a five-point lead atop the Central Interior Hockey League standings with two wins on the road Saturday and Sunday against the Mackenzie Moose. Kings won the Saturday game, a hard-fought penalty filled affair, by a score of 5-2 and held off the Moose on Sunday for a 6-4 win in another spirited game. Terrace has 16 points from 10 games, two more than the Luckies, and three more than the Smithers Steelheads. Meanwhile, the Smithers Steelheads, with a 4-2 road win in Houston against the Houston Luckies, stopped the Luckies’ undefeated streak at seven games, assuring that no teams will go undefeated this season. The win showed the Steelheads will likely be a team to be heard from over the next couple of weeks. Steelheads moved into a share of third place, with 10 points, one behind Houston, and tied with defending champions Kitimat Ice Demons. Kitimat, playing also on the road in Williams Lake, had the Stampeders were feeling good Saturday night about entering the second period tied 1-1. Then the Demons shook off their bus legs and ran up six straight goals, en route to a 10-2 final on Saturday. Not to be misled, Jamie Moran in the Demons net made some excellent saves to stymie the Stampeders, and was stingy with rebounds in the crowded crease area. The Demons, however, likely buoyed by the Saturday romp, underestimated the Williams Lake squad on Sunday and it took a third period scoring burst with three goals in five minutes to allow the Demons to come from 3-2 behind, before putting the Stampeders away, with a final score of 5-3. Sunday’s game was penalty filled, with Demons taking 66 minutes and Stampeders 46 minutes. Four players were ejected for fighting – Jon Aiken (Demons) and Gilbert Robbins (Stamps) threw punches with the game only two minutes old and in the second Kitimat’s Mark Zabot and Wilfred Robbins each earned five and a game with a spirited scrap in the Kitimat crease.