Goals, goals, goals as playoff picture gets muddier in CIHL week-end score fests

The Central Interior Hockey League was turned upside down this past weekend as the first place Houston Luckies caught up on a couple of games-in-hand and consolidated the team’s league lead with overwhelming home-ice wins over the visiting 100 Mile House Bears, by scores of 21-5 on Saturday and 24-3 on Sunday. The under-manned Bears were simply trampled as the top team in the CIHL took advantage of what turned out to be a valuable opportunity to ramp up individual scoring stats and likely establish a couple of new CIHL records for a single weekend of scoring. The combined score of 45-8 may be a record, although current league management does not have all records to hand. The two lopsided wins gave Houston a total of 28 points from the season. Luckies have only one loss to date in this season at the hands of the third place Smithers Steelheads. They also have four ties on the season. However, the losses combined with a win for Terrace over Smithers failed to clear up playoff positions for February. The Bears’ games may, however, have provided the Luckies with a potential goals-for, goals against tie-breaker advantage, if head-to-head games with Smithers and Terrace are split and any of the teams wind up the season tied. Terrace River Kings came out on top of the Steelheads by a score of 6-4 in the critical single-game on Sunday at Smithers. The loss was a disappointing one for the Steelheads, who had been hoping to start a run of wins that would allow them to use their extra games in hand to play catch-up on both Terrace and local rivals, the Houston Luckies. For Terrace, the win, left them with a possible shot at first place. But, with only one road game left against the Kitimat Ice Demons, Jan 21, and a pair of games in the last weekend of the season two against the Luckies in their own rink, the Kings will need to win all the way. While, mathematically, the Kings can still vie for first place, an edge for a second-place finish may still be with Smithers, which still has a total of five games left in a busy month, including one this weekend with the Luckies in Houston. Steelheads follow that game with two at home against stumbling 100 Mile House Bears and two more to finish the season at home, against the Mackenzie Moose. Smithers and Houston, however, will likely see the playoff positions partly established after Saturday’s head-to-head meeting in Houston. However, losing to Terrace at home, was not what the Steelheads wanted in a month where they have to play so many games. In other CIHL weekend action Jan. 7-8, the traveling Mackenzie Moose ran into a hotter-than-normal Williams Lake Stampeders team, playing for some pride and giving some ice time to a couple of newcomers, as the work to establish a presence for the 2006-07 season. The Stamps came up with a better offensive effort to win both weekend games by scores of 11-4 Saturday and then they outlasted a late rally by the Moose Sunday to hold on for an 8-7 win. Head to head games will likely settle playoff spots The Moose are still on the road this coming week-end when they take on the rejuvenated Kitimat Ice Demons, who will be targeting a maximum six points from their last three home games of the season, two against the Moose this weekend and the season finale against the Terrace River Kings on Jan. 21. With their two remaining end-of-season games against the Luckies, the Kings will have their playoff fate in their own hands, playing at the Terrace Arena. These games will be huge for both teams and the other playoff teams will be watching carefully.