Ice Demons stretch lead in West Division with two lopsided 9-1, 7-1 wins against Wolverines

The Kitimat Ice Demons played sloppy hockey but had little difficulty in handling the Hazelton Wolverines in Kitimat this weekend, winning 9-1 on Saturday and 7-1 Sunday, despite missing several top players. Hat trick performances by Jeff Mildenberger on Saturday and Terry Whelan on Sunday, contributed to the easy wins. Mildenberger accidentally directed the puck into his own net on Saturday, with Aaron Croft getting credit for the first period goal. The Ice Demons now have nine points from their first six games, with a shootout loss to the east division Houston Luckies and a Sunday loss last week to the Williams Lake Stampeders in Williams Lake. The Omenica Ice and Williams Lake Stampeders showed it will be a long dicey season this year, when they again split weekend games, with the Ice taking the Saturday game 6-5, erasing a 5-3 Stamps lead in that game in the third period. Stamps had the 5-3 lead on Sunday afternoon, but were able to hold it this time. Francis Johnson had a hat tick in a losing cause Saturday and led the way with two goals Sunday In Terrace, the River Kings finally got ice in their arena, but the home opener in the renovated rink was spoiled by the Smithers Steelheads who won 5-1 in an emotionally-charged game. Terrace had taken both ends of a double-header in Smithers last weekend. In 100 Mile House Saturday night, the Houston Luckies won their second shootout game of the season defeating the Bears 4-3 after the teams tied 3-3 at the end of regular time. It was the third disappoint shootout loss for the Bears. On Sunday, the Luckies are reported to have won 5-3.