Demons to host Houston Luckies and Terrace will play in Smithers for first round of CIHL play-offs

Double headers on the weekend to end the Central Interior Hockey League regular season this past weekend determined the final placing for the top four teams in the league and set the scene for the first round of playoffs this coming Saturday, Feb. 4 Saturday wins and Sunday ties by the Terrace River Kings, against the Houston Luckies, by the Smithers Steelheads playing the Mackenzie Moose in the season’s last two games, put Terrace into second spot and Smithers into third, dropping Kitimat Ice Demons to fourth place. Thus, the Demons will get ready to host the Luckies at home this Saturday in the first round and Terrace will travel to Smithers. Game time at Tamitik Arena for the Demons-Luckies game is 8 p.m. In the regular season the two teams met four times, with Demons losing twice and tying twice. Demons are the defending Kal-Tire Cup Champions and Coy Cup provincial Champions. The two teams have a hot rivalry going. The second games are scheduled for Houston and Terrace on the 11th-12th Feb. weekend. Two wins gets a team into the final. On the weekend Terrace took a four-goal lead over Luckies early and held them off for a 6-4 win. On Sunday the Luckies, who clinched the league title a week ago, came back harder, but couldn’t do better than a 5-5 tie. Steelheads won Saturday’s game against the Mackenzie Moose by a score of 9-2, but the Moose showed they had some fight left tying the Sunday game 5-5. During the regular season the River Kings beat Smithers twice, 6-3 and -4 and the teams played to two ties, 4-4 and 6-6. So the second season leaves some doubt about which team will establish supremacy and make it through to the Kal Tire final, scheduled for the February 18 and 25/26 weekends. In final standings, Houston with only two losses took the Lightning Cup for the regular season championship, with a total of 31 points. They showed good scoring all year as the put 141 goals past opposing goaltenders, but gave up only 57 – best in the league. In second place, however, Terrace scored 58 goals fewer, for a GF total of 83, and gave up 15 goals more, at 72. Ice Demons, with 126 goals for and only 65 against, showed they will be tough in the playoffs. Smithers had 119 goals in 20 games, but gave up 75. Scoring leaders The scoring championship at the end of the regular season was won in a runaway by Houston’s Derek Dinelle, with a total of 56 points from 17 goals and 39 assists. Dan Dykens of Smithers was a distant second with 43 points from 21 goals and 22 assists, and broke up a run of four Houston scorers, since Jon Marren finished third, 40 points from 15 goals and 25 assist, followed by Blair Dinelle, Houston, with 39 points from 16 goals and 23 assists. Terrace’s Mario Desjardins and Darcy Allison, with 38 (20-18) and 35 (10-25) points respectively finished fifth and sixth. Dykens and Ian Smith of Smithers were top goal-getters with 21 each i9n the 20-game season. Top goalie Smithers’ C. Anderson won the goalie race, with a GAA of 2.50 from five wins and a tie in six games, edging last year’s top ‘tender Brett Vilness of the Kitimat Ice Demons, who ended his season with a GAA of 2.89 from six wins, two losses and a tie. Don Kenzel of Houston, who started in 12 games, winning eight, losing two and tying two, was third with a GAA of 3.25. Bad boys Ice Demons’ Rob Lafferty was the top penalty-minutes man for the league with 112 penalty minutes in his 16 games played. Mackenzie’s Cole Atkinson, with 105 minutes in 13 games was in second top spot.