Kitimat Ice Demons add breathing space atop the CIHL West with four points from Kings

The Kitimat Ice Demons went a long distance to ensuring a home ice extra game advantage in the CIHL playoffs, when they took four points from the Terrace River Kings on the last weekend of play in 2006. On Thursday, Dec. 28 in Terrace, the Demons outplayed the Kings by a large margin to take a 6-3 win. On Saturday, Dec. 30, at home on the big ice at Tamitik Arena, they rubbed salt in the wound with an overwhelming 9-2 win, which featured three lively fights in the last 10 minutes, all of which appeared to go the Demons way. The two games emphasized a bad last two months for the River Kings…who were admittedly short some key players for the weekend, while Demons had he luxury of selecting healthy bodies to sit out the games. The Smithers Steelheads, after two losses in December to the Demons, losing the lead in the West Division, fell further behind, when they were tied 6-6 by the last place Hazelton Wolverines in the makeup game for a snow-cancelled game in October. The Wolverines haven’t been making much headway up the league, but they have played the role of spoilers several times, with a win, two losses and a tie against Terrace, a come from behind tie against the Steelheads and then another point from a tie with the Houston Luckies. It remains to be seen if the Wolverines can take any critical points off last year’s Kal Tire champions and Coy Cup champs, the Kitimat Ice Demons. They will have to wait a week for that opportunity, but the two teams clash for a double-header in Kitimat on January 13 and 14 and the Demons will be in Hazelton’s barn January. In the meantime, an anxious Houston Luckies team will have an opportunity to do or die in two games at home against the Wolverines this coming weekend, January 6 and 7. The Demons will be idle this weekend, but Smithers will want this best game on the ice Saturday when they play the Terrace River Kings and the two teams will clash again January 13 in Smithers. The Luckies and Smithers will battle twice more for vital playoff points in Houston January 20 and in Smithers to wind up the regular season January 27. Houston and the Omenica Ice are still struggling to arrange ice somewhere for two snow-delayed games between the teams, games that can mean critical points for both teams. So there are lots of combinations of potential final finishing places in the West Division. Similarly in the East Division, it is numerically possible for the Omenica Ice to catch the Williams Lake Stampeders for first place, if they can take all 16 points from their eight remaining games. But the Stamps still have two games against the 100 Mile House Bears, a team they have owned this year. To catch the Stamps, the Ice will also need all four points from their home and home double headers, this weekend, January 6 and 7 in Williams Lake and in Vanderhoof and Fraser Lake January 13-14. The Mackenzie Moose can’t be counted out of the playoffs either, with four games remaining against the 100 Mile Bears and two with Omenica Ice. They could really be spoilers, although the Ice and the Stamps will both have their final standings in their own hands.