Three weeks of indifferent play has the Heat stumbling along in a haphazard manner.
The past week saw the Sicamous Eagles cruise houseboat-style past the Chase crew in a home-and-away pair of ice capades.
The Eagles teased the Heat while recording a 5-4 two pointer, Wednesday, Nov. 30, on the eastern shores of Shuswap Lake. In the first, the Sicamous squad posted a pair from Alex Hartman and Jace Woodley and Josh Bourne on the power play from Kolten Moore and Michael Fidanza and. Pat Brady scored from Fidanza and Brett Alexander tied the match up. In the second, the Eagles popped in two from Tyler Collens and Woodley with his second. Chase came back with a power-play goal from Mason Palaga, assisted by Kaden Black and Brady. Then Captain Spencer Farstad evened things out from Black and Zachary Fournier at 4-4.
However, Dominic Dumas scored for the soaring birds, and ended with 5-4 slap-in-the-face loss for the Heat.
The two teams suited up again Saturday night at the Art Holding Memorial Arena. Two-hundred-and-seventy-two fans in the bleachers are expecting redemption, but got served a big plateful of indifferent play.
While the result, a 4-3 loss, was hard to swallow, there were some moments of thrills and chills. Sicamous ended the first period ahead 2-0 thanks to goals from Dumas and Woodley. The middle frame was scoreless due to the Eagles going 0-for-5 on the power play as Chase got into penalty trouble.
In the third, Chase popped in two, Fidanza with a power-play counter from Moore, and Josh Bourne, then Fidanza with his second from Brady and Bourne. Sicamous got one from Cameron Flinton and another from Alex Astasiewicz to go up 4-2. With 20 seconds to go, Fidanza scored a hat rick from Palaga and Black. Inspite of the night being the “Fiddle Sticks Show,” the rest of the squad played uninspired-shinny for 50 of 60 minutes. The result, a 4-3 loss of two points.
Loose Change: The Heat shuffled Calgarian Chris Pedersen out, and brought in defenceman Noah Looman in a trade with the Nelson Leafs. Looman is from Saskatoon, Sask., and debuted Saturday night. Travis Beaubien was back in the lineup after spending four weeks on the sidelines with a lower-body injury. Jake Delorme and Evan Hughes remain on the injury list.
