Double home ice wins for Smithers Steelheads and Houston Luckies carry both to CIHL division finals

Home-ice advantage turned out to be just that as both the Houston Luckies (East) and the Smithers Steelheads (West) first evened their best of three CIHL first round play-offs Saturday against the Williams Lake Stampeders And then the two divisional second place finishers rode the momentum for big Sunday wins to advance to the divisional finals. On Saturday, it was the Luckies turn to raise the ante against the Stampeders who took game 1 of the series at home last week. The Luckies hit hard and often to outscore the Stampeders 6-2 Saturday and again by a score of 6-3 on Sunday. Both games had controversial moments. On Saturday a tying “goal” by the Stamps that would have made the score 2-2 was overturned and Luckies added a goal for a 3-1 lead that the Stampeders just didn’t have the legs or scorers to overcome. The start of Sunday’s game time was delayed until 4.00 p.m., due to a tournament in Houston. Stampeders had an even tougher game Sunday as Luckies found added momentum, to win 6-1, sending Williams Lake on a long disappointed trip home. In Smithers, it looked for a time that the Terrace River Kings could carry the momentum from their overtime win last Saturday, as they carried a slim one-goal lead into the third period. But instead it was the Steelheads that tied the game 1-1 and earned a shot at a sudden victory win in overtime. River Kings’ goaltender Burny Carlson faced a lot of shots Saturday night, but wasn’t able to prevent the Steelheads from tying the series on an OT goal by Darren McMillan, assisted by Rob Miller. Sunday, with their backs to the wall, the River Kings just could not produce enough offence and Smithers carried the game, 6-3 in regular time. Reported scorers for the Kings were, Steve Cullis with two, and Ryland Mcdonald with the single. Goals for the Steelheads came from Mike Verticchio with two, and singles went to Dennis Olson, Dallas Anderson, Casey Torbohm, and Rob Millar, with a goal and an assist, Mitch Pederson with two assists, and Cody Brown with a trio of assists. For their efforts the Steelheads will enjoy another packed house this Saturday, when they host the league regular season champions, the Kitimat Ice Demons for game one of the best-of-three division final. Games two and three, if needed, will go in Kitimat on Feb. 9-10. Demons and Steelheads split their first two games of the season, in Smithers in November, with each team winning a shootout game. But the Demons seemed to have the better legs in their two home games winning both, 7-0 in the Saturday game and 3-2 Sunday. Demons finished 10 points ahead in the season, with 28 to Smithers’ 18. Demons’ last outing was a pair of wins in Hazelton, Jan. 4 and 5. The Houston Luckies will also be at home again Saturday hosting the West Division winners, the Omenica Ice in a one game showdown before traveling to Vanderhoof on Feb. 9-10 for game two and three. The Ice’s last game was a 5-3 win over the Houston Luckies on Jan. 12 to secure the west division bye.

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