Three-way tie in the Eastern Division as Houston Luckies edge Omenica Ice and Stampeders register a big win over 100 Mile House Bears

The Houston Luckies dug into their bag of tricks on home ice, for a welcome win, edging the Omenica Ice 7-5, with an empty net goal scored by Glen Kelly. The win created a three way tie at the top of the Eastern Division of the Central Interior Hockey League, as the Williams Lake Stampeders showed both teams they won’t go away, with a huge 12-2 win over the disheveled 100 Mile House Bears. The Ice, the Stamps and the Luckies all have 18 points, but the Luckies have the all important edge, two games in hand over both the Ice and the Stamps. Luckies have played 12, while Stamps and Ice have each played 14 games. Saturday’s game was one that could have gone both ways. Houston had a 2-1 lead in the first, but surrendered that to trail 3-2 in the second period. A hat trick of goals by Blair Dinelle, made the score 5-3, but then the Ice took a turn at comeback, tying the game at 5-5, with only three minutes remaining. With the fans perhaps thinking shootout, Derek Dinelle gave the Luckies a last minute lead and despite pulling their goaltender for an extra shooter, the Ice were unable to prevent Kelly’s empty netter. A fight between Omenica high scorer Dave Gordon and Houston’s Alvin Brodie took Gordon out of the game early, forcing the Ice to shuffle lines. Ice scorers included Brent McIsaac (2), David Boone and Kilbreath. After the empty netter, Blair Dinelle and Brent McIsaac dropped the gloves as the ex-Lucky decided the game was over and he needed to deliver a message for next week. Houston will face Omenica again next Saturday in Fraser Lake, while Williams Lake will have a week off before traveling to Smithers, Jan. 5 for two vital games against the Steelheads that could settle final places in the East. These games will wind up the season for the Stampeders, while Smithers will have one game remaining against Hazelton to help finalize playoff positions in the west. The Stampeders dominated this game from start to finish, easily out shooting the Bears by a 3-1 margin. Williams Lake had intermission leads of 5-0 & 6-0, on their way to the 12-2 score. Kris Mattice led the way for the Stampeders with four goals, (most of them of the back-door nature on slick passes from Wes Reid). Francis Johnson & Robin Gilbert both tallied twice, while Stu Sasges, Willis Harry, Aaron Zurak and Wilfred Robbins all had singles. Responding for the Bears were Justin Paul and Danny Gilbert with too little, too late third period goals. Dale Weins took the loss in the Bears net, with Willie Sellars recording the victory for Williams Lake. Unfortunately, there was a very nasty incident late in this game as well, but much more serious. With 48 seconds left in the third period, Justin Paul of the 100 Mile House Bears took a high stick to Stampeders #16, Gilbert Robbins, breaking Robbins jaw and causing a very nasty welt across the throat of Robbins. Gilbert made the trip back to Williams Lake only to be rushed to the Cariboo Memorial Hospital. Has was attended to, and then moved on to the Kamloops Hospital for surgery. The Bears player who caused the grievous injury was given a Match Penalty as well as a Game Misconduct. The Referee was also writing up an incident report for further action by the BCAHA. The Stampeders are now off until January 5 & 6 when they will finish off their regular season schedule on the road against the Smithers Steelheads. This weekend will also likely settle the top spot in the western Division, as the Kitimat Ice Demons will meet local rivals, the Terrace River Kings twice, once in Terrace on Thursday and again in Kitimat on Saturday. The Kings lost another game to the Hazelton Wolverines last Friday night, in the Kings’ 11th game of the season. The score was 5-4 for the Wolverines in a shootout. No details on the game are yet available, but the win was the second in a row for the Wolverines. Terrace will host Kitimat on Thursday and travel to the final home game for the Demons Saturday in Kitimat. The Demons finish their season as they did last years, with two games in the Hazelton arena against the suddenly formidable Wolverines, who will be looking for some payback for 9-1 and 7-1 losses to the Ice Demons earlier in the season.