Kitimat Ice Demons take game one of CIHL playoff series, 7-3, over Kings

With a fairly convincing 7-3 home ice win Saturday night over the Terrace River Kings, the Kitimat Ice Demons took the first game of the best of threet CIHL playoff championship. The Demons had finished a disappointing fourth in the league after some key injuries resulted in a slow start to the season. that Demons could not recover from. Saturday’s (Feb. 18) win by a score of 7-3 over local rivals, the Terrace River Kings, was achieved in a workmanlike manner that showed the Demons out-shooting and out-playing a short-manned Terrace roster that seemed to miss captain Mario Desjardins badly. In the first half of the game, the Kitimat line of Terry Whelan, Daniel Mayer and Nick Markowski got off to a flying start, scoring quickly in the first period to stake the Demons to a 3-0 lead and the defending champions didn’t look back. Daniel Mayer started the scoring with a shorthanded goal, after Terry Whelan picked up a loose puck, with David Venman in the penalty box for roughing. Whelan sent Mayer through the defense on his own and he dipsy-doodled the puck behind Brad Norwood in the Terrace net, with only five minutes gone in the game. It took Terrace about eight minutes to get its first shot on Brett Vilness in the Kitimat net and he stoned Terrace’s best player on the night, Terry Zaporzan, on a hard direct shot from about 10 feet out. With just under nine minutes left in the period, Nick Markowski and Jeff Mildenberger moved the puck around the perimeter and Markowski slid a pass to Whelan, who put it top shelf on Norwood. Whelan then picked up the second goal of a natural hat-trick, again from Markowski and Mayer, just three minutes later, on the power play. With Curt Nestor serving a tripping penalty, the Demons seemed to move the puck around with ease. Terrace got a liottle life with a goal with just over three minutes gone in the second period, when Terry Zaporzan slapped home a rebound off Vilness who was down trying to cover up a loose puck in the crease. Assists went to Nate McNamara and Phil Morrison. Whelan, however, roofed another shot for his third goal of the night, with five minutes left in the second period, capitalizing on a nice pass from behind the goal from Daniel Mayer, which he put well out of Norwood’s reach. Terrace got that one back with 30 seconds left in the period when Davey Jones finished off a nice move by Phil Morrison and the period finished 4-2 for the Demons. In the third period, the line of Craig Hewitson, Blaine Markwart and speedy newcomer Brent Mailloux began to get its timing right. Markwart got the first of three straight goals after Mailloux relayed a Hewitson cross ice pass on to the sniper’s stick and he rifled it home. Terrace showed some tenacity, coming back on the line change, with a goal only 21 seconds later, straight off the face off. Troy Farkvam finishedoff a pretty give-and-go by Toby Mitchell. Markwart got his second goal a with just under five minutes left in the period, set up by Jeff Mildenberger for another rocket. With Kitimat in good control, but fighting off a late Terrace power play with Demons’ captain Chris Vilness in the box for hooking, Craig Hewitson hit the post on the empty net after Terrace pulled Norwood for an extra attacker. Terrace cleared the puck but Markwart recovered it in the face-off circle to the right of his own goaltender and flipped it the length of the ice for his third goal, into the still-empty net. Terrace was out-shot by a considerable margin (50 – 22 by Demons’ stats man’s count) but the score sheet showed a shots total of 75 to 26, so kudos to young Norwood in the Kings’ net, who did stellar duty in the face of some pretty overwhelming odds. The game didn't feature much in the way of heavy hitting and there were no fights as both teams concentrated on hockey. Terrace will have to play much better hockey at home Saturday, Feb. 25 if they want to extend the final series. A good crowd of just under 1,500 packed Tamitik Arena for the game.