Paulsen Lautard received a lot of attention during the Summerland Steam’s 5-2 win over the Kelowna Chiefs on Sunday.
Lautard became the Steam’s franchise leader in goals with 58. However, it was linemate Jack Mills who potted the winner at Summerland Arena that afternoon. Mills, featured on the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League website under Who’s Hot in the KI, added two assists including the one on Lautard’s franchise leading goal to help improve the Steam to 22-12-0-0-1.
The home side opened the scoring on a tally by Josh Pilon, who scored his first goal since joining the Steam from the Revelstoke Grizzlies. The Chiefs then used a power-play to even the score on a goal by Jonathan Lee. The Steam then put in two more from Riley Pettitt and Mills, to give them a 3-1 cushion. The Chiefs struck once more at 15:01 of the second period on the power-play again. Lautard then sealed the result with two tallies. Along with Mills, Keenan Scott and Adam Jones picked up assists on those goals.
“We played pretty good. We got pucks deep and a big thing was also our discipline,” said Lautard, the Steam captain. “If we’re disciplined, we outwork the team, we are going to win. It showed today.”
The match didn’t lack chippiness, especially after the whistles with some scrums in front of the goalies.
“They try to be a little chippy and try to draw us into their type of game,” Lautard added.
“I was very happy with the way the guys played,” said Steam assistant coach Wade Parker, who filled in for coach John DePourcq, who was away watching his son play with the Bentley University Falcons in Colorado. “They worked their butts off. That’s how we have to win hockey games. We were fast, we were physical and we outshot them. Everything we did, we got pucks to the net. It was a good game for us.”
Matt Huber made 13 saves for his 11th win.
Coyotes undefeated
The Osoyoos Coyotes opened 2016 with a tie against the North Okanagan Knights on the road on Jan. 2. Colton Rhodes, Rainer Glimpel and Reid Wilson scored for the Coyotes. Brett Soles turned aside 36 shots. The next day they were in Princeton to take on the Posse and doubled them up 4-2. The Coyotes jumped out to a 4-0 lead on goals by Rainer Glimpel, Wilson, Colin Bell and Glimpel with his second. The Posse got both of their goals in the final 10 minutes. Adam Jones made 23 saves for the win. The Coyotes are 26-7-1-0-1 and are first in the Okanagan Division.
