This past weekend the Chase Heat Junior Hockey Club was faced with a pair of games of significant magnitude.
On Friday, Jan. 11 they faced the KIJHL League-leading Nelson Leafs in their home arena. Eleven minutes in, the Heat opened scoring with Marc Mackenzie firing it and Nicholas Fidanza and new recruit Mitchell Dolman getting the assists.
The Leafs got a pair before the Heat evened things up with 17 minutes gone in the third, with Drew Wilde getting the goal and Reece Forman and Ryan Beach helping with the assist. The two teams went into overtime with the Leafs getting the game winner with 15 seconds left in the second overtime period.
It was a huge effort and a well-deserved single point for the tie after regulation in a clean, fast-action contest.
On Saturday, Jan. 12, the team headed to Princeton to take on the Okanagan Division-leading Posse. This was a rough and tumble contest with the vigilante group taking a 4 – 2 victory.
Chase scored two short-handed markers, the first from Mckenzie Guardiero assisted by Dolman and the second was landed in the net by Wilde with a little help from Mackenzie.
The second period in this game featured three separate sets of fisticuffs with the Posse getting the most minutes awarded for mayhem.
In other Heat news, the team has traded Aiden Silzer-Hooker to the Revelstoke Grizzlies and Dom Hodges to Sicamous Eagles and brought in two players from Langley, Mitchell Dolman, a defenceman, and Michael Rand, a skilled forward.
Next Saturday night the Armstrong-based Knights come to town followed by the Grand Forks Border Bruins on Sunday.
