Following their first win of the season against the Beaver Valley Nighthawks on Friday, the Castlegar Rebels claimed two more victories over the weekend.
Hot off their win against Beaver Valley, the Rebels also defeated the Nelson Leafs for the first time this season on Saturday.
Team captain Vince Bitonti scored the first goal for the Rebels early in the first period, assisted by Everett Hicks, but the Nelson’s Nicholas Wihak soon responded, tying things up.
Then in the second, Chris Breese also scored early, assisted by Shawn Campbell and Bitonti, putting the Rebels back in the lead. From there the Rebels went on to score two more goals in the second: the first scored by John Moeller, assisted by Andrew Petten and Hicks, and the second scored by Jordan Wood, assisted by Breese.
Moeller scored the only goal in the third, assisted by Hicks and Reid Wilson, and the Rebels claimed their first win of the season against the Leafs, 5-1.
“We came out strong and then we were stronger than them the whole game,” said Parker Hickey, assistant general manager.
That puts the Rebels 1-2 against the Leafs this season.
Then on Sunday, the Rebels shut out the Golden Rockets, outplaying them and outshooting them 51-11.
With over six minutes left in the first, the Rebels were already up four goals — scored by Bitonti, Chase Daniels, Jesse Beiley and Brady Daniels.
Things slowed down in the second, where Breese scored the only goal of the period.
Breese then scored a second goal early in the third and Chase Daniels scored a goal at 7:48, which might have been the killing blow for Rockets’ goalie Calum Humble, because it set off a chain of goals within minutes of each other, with Hicks and Edward Lindsey both finding the net.
Not about to slow down, the Rebels ended the game with a goal from Jacob Lindsey at 0:01 and a final score of 10-0.
“We were happy about the 10 goals, but I think we were more happy about the zero that they go against us,” said Hickey.
The Rebels are 2-1 against the Rockets this season, but more importantly, the win pushed them past Beaver Valley in the standings, making them second in the Neil Murdoch Division and three points away from the Leafs, who are first.
“The goal is obviously first and we have a lot of games against Nelson going forward that we’ll have to win to overtake that, but passing BV was the goal this weekend and we did that so we’re happy,” said Hickey.
He was optimistic about the Rebels ability to play strong against the Leafs and Nighthawks.
“We’ve just got to keep playing as well as we know we can play. I think today was a big step. Often when we play teams that we feel aren’t as strong, we play down to their level or with the Leafs we slow down with them, but if we just keep playing like we know we can play then we know we can be the best team,” Hickey said on Sunday.
The Rebels are 16-7-0-1-0 for the season and have played 24 games, whereas the Leafs are 19-4-1-0-1 and have played 25.
Next up, the Rebels face the Nighthawks once more at the Castlegar Complex on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
