Central Interior League tightens up in the East - thanks to the surprise Steelheads and a Terrace turn-around

Although the Kitimat Ice Demons retained first place overall in the CIHL with a pair of wins over the pointless Hazelton Wolverines, a strong performance by the Smithers Steelheads and a turn around that gave the Terrace River Kings a Sunday victory, showed the season still has surprises to come. Demons, minus some scoring power, did not play as well as expected Saturday but had enough going to edge the Wolverines 3-2, but came back strongly thrash the Wolves 9-1 Sunday. The Smithers Steelheads showed their narrow 6-5 loss in their home-ice opening game to the Houston Luckies, wasn't indicative of their potential as they used home ice advantage for a surprise hammering of the Omineca Ice with a convincing 6-2 win in only their second game of the season, to tighten things up in the middle of the East Division. The Ice came with a full squad to turn the Steelheads into Guppies, instead went home shocked and a little melted. This was a spirited affair, that involved a third period line brawl including the goalies. Viewers granted the Ice the edge in the line brawl, but the next two tilts, 27 Groot vs. 15 Ross was an easy win for Groot. When #16 Vinnish easily manhandled #44 Hill, he demonstrated to the Ice know that the Fish will hold their own. The game had a total of 122 min in penalties, 53 min Steelheads, 69 min Ice, 20 min for the Ice were miscellaneous and ten players ejected, as well as Steelheads Coach who got on the bad side of Mr. Holland the ref and was asked to leave the game a little early. Gordie Howe specials went to Dallas Anderson and Randle Groot ...a goal, an assist and a fight. Jamie Deba, Steelheads' goalie was a little shaky at the start, made some great saves, and warmed to his job, while Simoes, Ice goalie, probably prevented a higher score. Backup goalies Harris for the Steelheads and Vandelaar for the Ice came in and did their job. First period 4-1 for the Steelheads, goals from Groot (Eric Smith, Brown), Dallas Anderson (Arnold), M. Verticchio (Mitch Pederson, Tyler Pederson), Arnold (Anderson, McMillan), and Ice lone goal from Kilbreath (Baker). Second period 5-2, goals from Darryl Young, unassisted, an end to end beauty to the top corner. For the Ice Gouliquer (Boyetchko). Third period, ended 6-2, and included a goal from, former NHL goaltender, Mike Wall - his first in the CIHL. Wall, the former P.G. Cougar, played several games for the Anahein Duck in th 2006-7 season. Meanwhile East Division leaders the Houston Luckies, expecting an easy time with the new West Division Prince Rupert Rampage, found they had plenty to handle, but came through with a pair of wins, a late 6-3 finish Saturday and a closer game, 5-4 in the Sunday matinee, as the Rampage came back twice, but lost out again late as conditioning ran out. The Williams Lake Stampeders laid a 9-3 beating on the Terrace River Kings, Saturday night, but took their rejuvenated opponents too lightly Sunday, as the River Kings played a lot stronger game to win 5-3. On Saturday the road weary Terrace squad had little jump in the bus legs, but they still had the Stampeders deadlocked at 1-1 just over eight minutes into the game. However the Stampeders capitalized on River Kings penalty troubles and powered ahead to a 4-1 lead after the first intermission, The Stampeders would not look back as they built a 5-1 second intermission lead, and cruised to the 9-3 victory. Scoring for the Stampeders were Wilfred Robbins and Francis Johnson with 2 goals each with singles coming from Brent McIsaac, Jason Wright, Stua Sasges, Gilbert Robbins and Aaron Zurak. Responding for the River Kings were Steve Cullis with 2 goals and Garrett Kerr with a lone marker Brent McIsaac would tangle with Terrace tough guy, Nate McNamara, late in the game. It would be McIsaac who would end up on top of the scuffle much to the delight of the fans. With the win, the Stampeders extended their winning streak to three games and evened their win/loss record at 3-3. That all changed Sunday. After allowing the Stamps to build a 3-1 first period lead, the River Kings came back with probably their best period of the weekend outscoring the Stampeders 4-0 in the middle frame of the afternoon game. The visitors then proceeded to play a very smart shut-down game tying up the faster Stampeder forwards. It seemed every Williams Lake pass or shot during the 2nd and 3rd periods had a black jersey in the way. It was a total team effort from the River Kings and a well deserved victory. Scoring for the River Kings were, Steve Cullis with three goals (to go along with his 2 from the previous evening), and Nate McNamara with a deuce. Responding for the Stampeders were Wilfred Robbins, Gilbert Robbins and Aaron Zurak. Burny Carlsen played a very good game between the River Kings goal in securing the win. Richard Ward took the loss. Terrace improved their record to 2-1, while the Stamps fell to 3-4. In Kitimat, Saturday's encounter was a fast-paced game and the Demons, missing their top two scorers over the past two years, Craig Hewitson and Terry Whelan, found the fore-checking by a Wolverines team, with some new faces in the line-up hard to handle, especially in the first period when the Demons were guilty of too many giveaways in their own end and were out-shot 14-7. However, improved as Hazelton's skating and passing seemed to be, with the extra space, their shooting accuracy left a lot to be desired and when it was on, Brett Vilness in the Demon's net was his usual dependable self, and was gathering up or otherwise stopping everything. At the other end, former Smithers net-minder, Cory Croft, was doing much the same thing with Demons shooting and both goal tenders benefited from the final backstops, the uprights, in the first period. Wolverines took advantage of a double give-away directly in front of with just 3.55 remaining in what was also a hard-hitting period, the Vilness to open the scoring in a screened shot by Konrad Howard, assisted by Pat Muldoe and Mitch Hobensheid. Hazelton kept up the pressure and got out of the period with the one goal lead. Demons were shorthanded for eight minutes while the Wolverines took two penalties for four minutes. The goal was on the power-play with Demons having both Mike Fisk and Jeff Mildenberger in the box and Wolverines also had Landon Vipond off for roughing with Fisk. But the lead didn't hold up long. Straight off the face off, it took 10 seconds for Trent Bossence to smack home the equalizing goal, assisted by Doug Wilson and Jeff Baker. Then the game resorted to the same goal-tending duel, with great saves at both ends, plenty of give-aways and take-aways, but no further scoring as the teams exchanged 11 shots each. Both goalies were putting on a show, while the shooters tried to find a way around them. It was another hard hitting and frustrating period for both teams as the Demons garnered six penalties for 12 minutes and referee Darren Meeds also handed the Wolverines 10 minutes. The first minute of the third period, however, was similar to the second, as the Demons exploded off the opening face off. This time it took 38 seconds before Blaine Markwart scored his second goal in two games, after a 19-month enforced layoff. This time Markwart was the recipient of a great rebound from a Jeff Baker shot and Croft, out of position had no chance to stop the bullet. Ian Coleman also had an assist. Encouraged with the lead, the Ice Demons played a lot better in the third period, firing 20 shots at Croft, while Vilness only had to handle seven shots, several from a long distance as the Wolverines seemed to run out of legs a little. The barrage resulted in an insurance goal by Demons' captain, Gerard Baldo eight minutes into the period, from Jeff Mildenberger and Jeff Baker, with his third assist of the game. The Wolverines kept trying and were rewarded with a goal by Phil Morrison after Mike Fisk lost an edge in the Demons corner and went down. Ryan Muldoe and Mitch Marshall combined for assists on the Morrison goal. The two teams took only one two minute penalty each in the third period. Total shots in the game were 38 for the Demons and 32 for Hazelton. On Sunday the Demons dominated the entire game, scoring four times in the first period, twice in the second and three times in the third for an impressive 9-1 win. The easy win was quite a contrast from Saturday's less than sterling effort. Demons out-shot the tired-looking Wolverines 35-11, with Cody Smith on the busy side of the rubber and Jamie Moran not seeing a lot of pucks. The first period also featured a fight between Trent Bossence and Phil Morrison, Both were ejected and Morrison also received a five minute cross checking penalty. Three Demons had two goals, one assist afternoons - Terry Whelan, Jeremy Brady, and Greg Sabey, while Jeff Baker had two assists. Other goals were scored by Kyle Boudreault, Jeff Mildenberger, who also assisted on Derek Wakita's goal, the final score of the game. Ian Coleman had two assists and points for other helpers went to David Venman, Steven Venman, Kyle Boudreault and Doug Wilson. In Smithers, the Steelheads and the Omineca Ice had a fight filled game, that included a goalie scrap, as the Steelheads showed a lot of grit to take the Ice out6-2. No specific details available at this time. No specific details either on goings on in Prince Rupert, but so far reports show the Rampage will have to work on conditioning and playing 60 minutes to make headway against the top teams in the CIHL. But so far, they have only faced the top teams, coming close Sunday with the Luckies and taking a point from the Ice Demons in a Sunday shootout loss. So there cold be more to come when the Rampage meet the other two teams in the divisions.