The hometown Rebels played two games this past week and came away with an even 1-1 record.
The first game took place Wednesday night when the Rebels hosted the Grand Forks Border Bruins.
The shot total for the game was 39-34 and Castlegar made sure each of those extra shots counted, coming away with a 5-1 win.
Bruins player Michael Rand opened the scoring at 12:16 in the first with an unassisted goal.
After that it was all Rebels.
Yannis Soukas scored the next goal in the first period and another in the second.
No more shots made it past either goalie until the third period, when Castlegar turned up the heat.
Within the first few minutes Rebels forward Lindan Calliou scored on Bruins goalie Jacob Mullen.
Just short of halfway through the third Ryan Rosich found twine off an assist from Bryan Lubin.
With the Bruins hopes of a comeback dwindling, Lindan Calliou came back for seconds to seal the deal. He found an opening in the goalies defence and scored the final goal with 3:37 remaining.
The following game was played on Sunday and did not go as smoothly for the Rebels.
Visiting from out of country, the Spokane Braves had the Rebels figured out before the first period had ended.
The first period began with two goals from Castelgar’s Konnor Madsen and Ryan Teslak.
The Braves didn’t seem shaken as Kyle Davis came back with under two minutes remaining and reduced the deficit.
Braves player Tanner Stolz scored the only goal in the second period within the first minute and that was the last time the Rebels saw themselves ahead.
Tempers flared on both sides as the third period pressed forward.
The two teams traded penalty minutes from unsportsmanlike conduct, to fighting and roughing.
With little over half the final period left to go Rebels’ Mike Bhatoa and Braves’ Taylor Everhart both received game misconducts.
As the game looked like it may extend into overtime the Braves’ Emilio Trujillo scored the go ahead goal with 3:29 remaining.
Immediately following the score the heat of the game caught up with Rebels Dylan Bowerman and he was handed a two minute minor for checking from behind and a game misconduct.
The Braves used this penalty to score yet another goal and end the game with a 4-2 win.
The Rebels are still hot on Nelson’s trail being only one point behind in the standings.
