When you beat the best in the league, you know you’ve had a good weekend.
The Sicamous Eagles manage to topple KIJHL front runners, the Kamloops Storm with a 7-5 tally during one of four games played between Jan. 29 and Feb. 2 – one of the more arduous yet rewarding weekends for the Eagles in a while.
The Jan. 29 contest was a home-ice affair that saw the Eagles beat the Osoyoos Coyotes 5-3. The Coyotes got off to a two-goal lead in the first frame, but a marker at 11:15 by Nathan Grieve, assisted by Colin Blake, seemed to be a harbinger of their eventual demise. In the second frame, the Eagles were quick to tie the Osoyoos 2-1 lead with a goal by Nicholas Astasiewicz, assisted by Tyson Taylor and Bradley Whitehead. Minutes later, teammate Matthew Maetche potted an unassisted marker, with Osoyoos catching a rebound in the last five minutes of the period.
At 18:12 in the third, Astasiewicz put Sicamous back on top with an unassisted goal of his own. With 17 seconds left on the clock, Riley Jepson potted an unassisted marker to seal the win for Sicamous.
On Friday, Jan. 31, the Eagles were in Kamloops to battle the Storm. Eagle Tyson Taylor was first to light up the board with an unassisted marker at 18:09 in the first period. The Storm’s Felix Larouche replied with back-to-back markers, but Kamloops lost the lead in the last two minutes of the frame, with goals scored at 1:49 and :02 by Stephen Hawco and Curtis Witney. Assists were by Darien Head, Devin Gerun and Arlyn Semeschuk.
The second period was book-ended with goals by Jayce Davis, assisted by Witney, and Nathan Grieve, assisted by Jameson Stoski and Colin Blake, with Kamloops potting a single in between.
Similarly, in the third frame, unassisted goals by Grieve and Blake sandwiched two Kamloops markers, both by the Storm’s top scorer Josh Rasmussen.
On Saturday, Feb. 1, the Eagles were in Salmon Arm, but not to take on their BCHL home team, the SilverBacks. The Sicamous team was in gorilla territory to do battle with division rivals, the Chase Heat, for Salmon Arm’s Hockey Day event. A power-play marker scored by the Heat early in the first frame was followed by a power-play goal by Blake, assisted by Head and Hawco. Grieve was next in line to score, with an assist by Maetche. Chase was last to score in the frame, tying the contest 2-2 going into the second period. Astasiewicz potted a single late in the second, assisted by Tyson and Gerun. Chase replied early in the third, with the remainder of the period going by goal-free, pushing the contest into overtime, where the Heat managed to earn a 4-3 victory.
Finally, on Sunday night, Feb. 2, the Eagles were back on home ice where they wrangled a 4-3 win from the 100 Mile House Wranglers. Devin Gerun was first to light up the board with a short-handed goal at 5:33, assisted by Owen Rowsell. In the second period, Astasiewicz and Taylor potted power-play markers at the beginning and the end of the period, with 100 Mile scoring two in between. Sicamous’ game-winning goal was scored by Maetche on a power play in the third, assisted by Davis and Gerun.
Eagles Kris Joyce was back on the ice for all four games after he and fellow netminder Chris Turner were out with injuries.
Despite the loss against the Heat, Eagles general manager Wayne March was pretty pleased with the team’s performance.
“Beating Kamloops was a big plus… We went on four games in five nights and I’m surprised we had anything left for Sunday’s game, but they reached down and pulled it off,” said March, commending the team and the coaching staff.
The Eagles host the Storm on Friday, Feb. 7. Game time is 7 p.m.
