Steelheads keep their heads and take two points from injury and penalty-hit Houston Luckies

The Smithers Steelheads, playing only their third game of the season due to some unusual scheduling, showed they have been using the practice time to good advantage, outlasting a combative Houston Luckies team, 6-4, in Houston in the only East Division game of the weekend. The game was rescheduled from later in the season. The Luckies were missing lynch-pin Derek Dinelle, injured against Kitimat last week, and for the second time in three games, Blair Dinelle was ejected from this game, for an illegal hit. Smithers, however, lost high scoring Dave Dykens, in the third period after he too emphatically protested a holding the stick penalty in the third period. Luckies had a 1-0 lead at the first intermission, but Smithers hit back in the second, which ended 2-2, setting the scene for what has been "entertainment time" - the third period in Houston -- these past couple of weekends. Smithers went ahead 4-2, but this time it was the Luckies who responded to tie the game at 4-4. But then they took a penalty and Smithers edged ahead again on the power play. Not only did they go ahead, they also added an insurance goal and the Luckies again allowed their frustration to boil over, resulting in three fights and some short benches for the rest of the game. Jamie Deba was in net for the Steelheads and Don Kenzle took the loss for the Luckies, who remain in first place in the East Division of the CIHL with Omenica Ice and the Williams Lake Stampeders both idle. The two points moved the Steelheads into a tie with the Ice, who are still two points back of the Stamps, but with two games in hand. Both teams were idle. The Steelheads have four games in hand on the Stampeders. These two teams, Luckies and Steelheads, will meet again next Saturday in Smithers, where the Steelies lost the season opener to Luckies in another close one, 6-5. There were only two games in the West Division and the second place Terrace River Kings went into the tight confines of the Hazelton Arena to play a double-header against the still-winless Hazelton Wolverines. Both, as expected were close, penalty-filled affairs where the lead kept changing, but again, Wolverines penalties caught up with them in the late stages of both games. Terrace kept plugging away, winning the Saturday opener, 5-3 after trailing 3-2 after two. Again on Sunday the Wolverines surrendered a lead, this time, 2-1 in the first, but went to the intermission 2-2. Terrace took a lead 4-2, at the end of the second and again were able to wear Hazelton down to win 6-4, after the Wolverines came within one at 5-4, but couldn't get the equalizer as the game deteriorated into a bit of a brawl after the final whistle. Terrace, now with five wins in six games remain four points behind the league-leading Ice Demons, but still have a pair of games in hand. The schedule has been unkind to Terrace and they will again face the Wolverines next week, but this time for only 1 game on Terrace ice. Neither Terrace nor the Wolverines have seen the Prince Rupert Rampage, the fourth team in their division, while Terrace has still to face their arch-nemesis Ice Demons. Both the Ice Demons and the Rampage had the week-end off. Wolverines have lost three times to the Ice Demons. That will change Nov. 15 when Terrace travels to Prince Rupert and the Demons-River Kings will finally meet Nov. 20 in Kitimat. Next week the Ice Demons will make their second trip to Prince Rupert. In the East Division, the Nov. 8-9 weekend will see Houston in Smithers and the Omineca Ice in Williams Lake for a single game.