Goalfests in the CIHL as shooters stick it to goaltenders - hard!

Some weekends are harder on goaltenders than others. This past weekend was one of these...out of four CIHL games on Saturday three were blow-outs for the home teams - 15-1 for the league-leading Kitimat Ice Demons over a demoralized, very short-handed Hazelton Wolverines team, 11-6 for the Williams Lake Stampeders over the visiting Omineca Ice and the home-town Prince Rupert Rampage scores one of their biggest wins since their inception, with a 9-3 trouncing of the east division Burns Lake Braves. The only close game of the night was a come-from-behind win on home ice, 5-4, by the Smithers Steelheads over the cellar-dwellers in the West Division, the Terrace River Kings. In Kitimat, Hazelton could only muster 14 skaters, including goaltenders, as a result of flu, injuries and player unavailability. The Ice Demons simply rolled over four lines and watched the score mount, 6-0 in the first, 10-1 in the second and 15-1 in the third, which featured Demons' back-up goaltender Rick Taylor, replacing Brett Vilness in the home net. A lowlight in the game was a severe injury to league-leader scorer, Curtis Cardinal, of Hazelton, who suffered a leg laceration and had to be taken to hospital by ambulance. With Cardinal out, and former captain Stu Barnes playing in Smithers, the combination seemed to deflate the Wolverines, who kept playing despite the setbacks. All in all, the Wolverines were glad it wasn't a double-header In Williams Lake, however the Stampeders cruised to a 7-0 lead behind the goaltending of William Sellars in the first leg of a double-header. They eased off a bit but still wound up as 11-6 winners. In Prince Rupert, the Rampage bounced back from a shootout loss to the Ice Demons last week, with a solid 9-3 win over the Braves, who were also a bit short-handed, missing several regulars unable to travel. The Braves showed more resilience Sunday coming back to win 4-2, to keep themselves well within reach of first place in the East, with 10 points. Williams Lake, however, also came from behind Sunday to take the second game of the double header by a score of 4-3, after being down 2-1 at the end of the second period. On Friday night in Smithers, a Randall Groot goal gave the Steelheads a shootout win over the Terrace River Kings, who had led 2-0 earlier in the game. Terrace led also in the Saturday night game, but couldn't keep the Steelheads off the scoreboard through the third and wound up losing by a score of 5-4.