It was a disappointing weekend for the Nelson Leafs as they dropped a pair of road games and fell to third place in the Neil Murdoch Division of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League.
On Friday, the Leafs hit the road for a contest against the Columbia Valley Rockies. Despite firing 25 shots on Rockies netminder Jason Sandhu, Nelson couldn’t find the back of the net, falling 3-0.
Columbia Valley got goals from Harrison Davies, Sam Young and Malcolm Fenelon.
Joey Karrer stopped 24 of 27 shots in the loss.
The next night, the Nelson squad travelled to Fernie to face the Ghostriders and dropped a 5-1 decision.
Nelson opened the scoring, thanks to a marker by Tyler Fyfe, but it would prove to be their only goal of the night as Fernie scored five in a row to win the game.
Fernie got goals from five different players, Derek Georgopoulos, Aaron Neufeld, Doan Smith, Joel Burgess and Tayler Sincennnes and a strong performance in the net by Jeff Orser.
Nelson goaltender Adam Maida faced shot after shot in the contest, stopping 50 of the 55 fired at him.
Nelson now sits in third place (with 50 points), two points behind the Castlegar Rebels in second and the seven points behind the first place Beaver Valley Nitehawks.
The fourth place Spokane Braves are just two points behind the Leafs.
Nelson’s next home game is on Friday, January 23 when the Creston Valley Thundercats come to the Nelson and District Community Complex.
Puck drops at 7 p.m.
