Demons and Kings will tangle for Kal Tire Cup in CIHL finals

The always-surprising Terrace River Kings will go to their first-ever Central Interior Hockey League Kal Tire Cup finals series, starting this Saturday (Feb. 18) against heated rivals, the Kitimat Ice Demons. The series will start in Kitimat's Tamitik Arena and continue in Terrace, Feb. 25. The Kings, who entered the league in the 2004-05 season, finished above the Ice Demons in the league standings and earned the extra home ice advantage of game three, if necessary in Terrace on Feb. 26. The teams have had a heated relationship, as befits two northwestern communities 50 kilometers apart. Terrace won only one of five games against the Demons this season, a 3-2 affair in Terrace on November 17. Demons won the Challenge Cup exhibition game between the two teams in September 11-4, while Terrace was still tinkering wit its line-up. Demons won the opener in the four game CIHL regular season 7-4 in Kitimat, and wound up the season with two additional wins, a 7-6 shootout squeaker, with five second left in the game on Dec. 29 and beat a short-handed Terrace team 7-4 in Kitimat for the last game of the season between the two on Jan. 21 The Demons, as defending Kal Tire Cup champions earned the right to go to the finals Saturday in Houston when they ended the CIHL semi-finals in two straight games, beating the regular season champions, the Houston Luckies, 3-2 on Feb. 4 and 2-1 on Saturday. Surprisingly the Houston barn was not sold out. Scoring for Kitimat were Daniel Mayer and Craig Hewitson, both first period goals. Dave Wiletjo got one back in the second and the third period was a back-and-forth heated affair that remained scoreless. The second place Kings who had defeated the third place Smithers Steelheads 6-2 in Smithers to open the semi-final, found themselves losing 6-2 at home Saturday, but bounced back for a 3-2 win on Sunday to move on to the final. In Terrace on the weekend the Kings put on a lackadaisical performance Saturday night and took a 6 - 2 licking from the Steelheads. Sunday was a different story as the Kings stormed onto the ice, played hard, and won 3 - 2. A tying goal in the last minutes of the game was dissalowed by the referee and although Smithers pulled their goaltender and gave it their all, Terrace held out for the win, taking the series 2 games to 1. Tickets should be available to All Seasons Sports in Terrace and at Tamitik Arena and Doch's Coffee Shop in Kitimat.