Ice Demons and River Kings take leads in game one of CIHL semi-final playoffs

The Kitimat Ice Demons’ showed some of the speed that carried them through last season as they edged the Houston Luckies, 3-2 at home, in one of two CIHL semi-final playoff games Saturday. In the second best-of-three playoff game, the Terrace River Kings outscored the Smithers Steelheads 7-5 in Smithers. In Kitimat, Houston took the early lead, with a power play goal with less than five minutes gone in the first period. Demons lost a draw to the left of goaltender Brett Vilness. Acting captain, Jarret Anderson got the puck to Derek Dinelle who put a shot high over Vilness’s shoulder. The power play goal took less than six seconds, with Demons’ Trent Bossence in the box for hooking. It took Kitimat about five minutes to tie the game with Daniel Mayer deflecting a point shot by defenseman Jeff Baker that eluded Kenzel in the crowded crease area. With less than three minutes left in the first period, Demons’ captain, Chris Vilness was sent in on Kenzel alone by Craig Hewitson and he blazed a fast shot into the roof of the net behind Kenzel. The lead stood up for about half of the second period, when Houston’s Derek Dinelle got his second of the game after a turnover was snagged by Blair Dinelle, whose pass allowed Derek plenty of room to beat Vilness. Then, with the period winding down, Ian Coleman put Kitimat in the lead again, after Lee Irvine was stopped point blank on a Hewitson rebound, but Coleman was in the right spot to put the second block behind Kenzel. There was no scoring in the third period, as both teams defended vigorously. There were a couple of wrestling matches, with double minors for roughing handed out to Kitimat’s Terry Whelan and Luckies’ Alonzo Slaney. Slaney took exception to Whelan pursuing a loose puck under Kenzel. Five minutes after that Kitimat’s Nick Markowski tangled with Jarret Anderson and both served roughing minors. The game featured some hard hitting, but Kitimat’s speed on the big ice contributed to the win as Houston labored to get shots on Vilness. Demons out-shot the Luckies 51 to 25. Luckies only dressed 17 players and seemed to lose their legs late in the game. In the other semi-final playoff game in Smithers, the Terrace River Kings took advantage of less than stellar goaltending to beat the Steelheads 7-5 in a scrappy game that saw Terrace’s Terry Zaporzan open the scoring with two back to back in the first period, Jeremy Travis got one back shortly after that. The game was 4-4 at the end of the second, but Terace had a bit more jump in the third. For Terrace, Terry Zaporzan had three, including the go-ahead goal in the third. Also scoring were Darcy Allison, Troy Butler and Nathan McNamara. Other scorers for Smithers included Dan Dykens, Darryl Young, Ian Smith and Cody Brown. Games two, and three, if necessary, go Saturday and Sunday in Houston and in Terrace.