Williams Lake wins big over the Bears while Ice Demons and Houston Luckies split the weekend, with a shootout

The Williams Lake Stampeders, as expected, beat the 100 Mile House Bears in their home opener on Saturday night by a surprising score of 11-8, as the Bears came out strong, scored the first two goals in the first three minutes, much to the excitement of the many 100 Mile House fans that made the trip north. The teams then traded goals back and forth through the remainder of the opening frame, as the period ended the Bears held a 5-4 lead. Williams Lake starting goaltender, Mike Taylor, had a rough go to begin the period, giving up 4 goals on just 5 shots resulting in Stamps Coach, Al Navrot, making the switch to Willie Sellars, who went on to complete the game and take the win. Seven different Stampeder players found the net behind the 100 Mile goaltenders, as Francis Johnson, Wes Reid, Stu Sasges and Evan McDonald all tallied twice, with Robin Gilbert, Ryan Conlin and Ryan Bremner adding singles. Scoring for the Bears, were Wade Balbirnie, and Kyle Plotnikoff with two each, with singles coming from the sticks of Chad Frizzi, Brad Stark, Phil Vaugois and Roy Nichol. John Beck started in net for the Bears, but was pulled after giving up 9 goals in under two periods of play. Dale Weins finished off the night in the 100 Mile House net. The Stampeders outshoot the Bears by a margin of 63 to 28. Next up for the East Division leading Stampeders is a pair of home games this coming weekend, Oct 27 & 28, against the defending league champions, Kitimat Ice Demons. As part of the Saturday evening game, fans are invited to come dressed in their finest Halloween costume. The Fan wearing the best costume, as determined by the evening’s crowd, will win dinner for two at a local Williams Lake restaurant. In the only other games in the league over the weekend, the Kitimat Ice Demons and the Houston Luckies split up a total of five p[points, with the Demons winning the Saturday home opener, 2-1, in front of over 1,000 fans. But the Luckies came back on Sunday, despite being out-shot 42 – 23, to win the game after a shootout. Luckies were in fact Un-Luckies, since they had the game in the bag, 2-1, when the Demons pulled goaltender, Brett Villness, for an extra attacker and stunned the Luckies with a tying goal with just six seconds left in the game. Although both teams showed some rust after the summer layoff, (Luckies had a win already under their belts, against the Smithers Steelheads, but it was the season-opener for the Ice Demons) goaltenders were in season-end form. Don Kenzle was between the pipes for the Luckies in both games. Jamie Moran suited up for the Demons Saturday night. All three goaltenders were in a stingy mood, both nights, Moran (on Saturday) letting in only a single shot by Blair Lefebvre, while Kenzle was beaten by Demons #27 Craig Hewitson, for the winning goal, with only 47 second s left in the first period. Hewitson and Ian Coleman also assisted on the Demons opening goal, early in the first, by Terry Whelan. Neither goaltender let in anything else for the rest of the game in which the home town Demons out-shot the Luckies 32- 24. On Sunday, LeFebvre (Alonzo Slaney) and Hewitson (Geoff Morgan and Jeff Mildenberger) again exchanged first period goals. Neither team scored in the second and Luckies’ Blair Dinelle cashed in a LeFebvre rebound early in the third. The Demons, who out-shot the Luckies 42–23 in this game, failed to play with the same intensity as Saturday, but scrambled the equalizer, on a power play, with only six seconds left in the game and an extra attacker on the ice, to disappoint the Luckies. The game went to a shootout and both teams exchanged goals by their first two shooters, Brad Owen and Craig Hewitson for the Demons and Kyle Amanson and Blair LeFebvre for the Luckies. Then each goalie stopped the third shooter before Glen Kelley beat Villness with the Luckies fourth shot. Jeff Mildenberger was stopped by Kenzle, who made a great save to cement the win. Neither game featured any fighting, although there was some mighty hitting. On Saturday Demos took 20 minutes in penalties and the Luckies 22. On Sunday Luckies took 20 minutes plus a 10 minute misconduct penalty to Derek Dinelle, while the Demons served 16 minutes in the box.