The Summerland Steam Junior B hockey team played to three wins on the weekend.
On Friday, the Steam faced the Kelowna Chiefs at home, playing to a 6-2 win.
Summerland took advantage of an early power play as Daylan Robertson opened the scoring just 48 seconds into the hockey game. Sam Nigg and Paulsen Lautard recorded assists.
Michael Winnitoy added to the Summerland lead on another power play with 8:02 to go in the first period.
In the first minute of the second period, Daylan Robertson scored to increase the Steam’s lead.
Lautard then got into the goal column after he chipped a puck around a Kelowna defender.
Jordan Boultbee put a shot up and over the shoulder of the goalie for a short side beauty.
Kelowna picked up two power play goals in the final minutes of the second period.
In the third, the Steam scored again in the first minute as Lautard got behind the defense and squeaked his second of the night to restore Summerland’s four-goal lead.
On Saturday, the Steam came out firing on all cylinders against the Princeton Posse, picking up a 5-1 victory in the Similkameen Valley.
The Steam left Summerland early in order to attend a memorial service for their friend and teammate, Alex Fraser.
They took a little while to get into a rhythm, but soon they began to show how tight-knit they’ve become as a team while dealing with adversity.
Led by Robertson, the Steam were able to open the scoring on the power play and get an early lead on the Posse.
They took the lead into the second period before Princeton tied the game. Just under two minutes later, Dylan Burton restored the lead for Summerland, and after that the Steam didn’t look back.
They turned the heat up on the Posse in the middle of the hockey game and into the third period.
Josh Dacosta added another power play goal with 1:46 to go in the second before Robertson added his second of the night halfway through the third.
Reid Brown made the score 5-1 at the 8:59 mark of the third to round out the scoring.
On Sunday afternoon the Steam hosted the North Okanagan Knights, playing to a 4-2 win.
The Steam got another fast start, as just 24 seconds into the hockey game, Robertson found Lautard wide open in front of the net where he deposited the puck behind Knights’ goaltender.
Robertson then scored at 2:24 in the first period.
The Knights then responded with a goal to cut the Steam’s lead.
The score stayed 2-1 Summerland until just under four minutes into the second period when Nigg took a pass from Robertson to score.
Lautard drew the second assist on Nigg’s goal which was the Steam’s third goal of the night, giving the whole line each three points.
Dacosta took a shot off the wall just four minutes later to give the Steam a 4-1 lead.
The Knights got one back on the power play late in the period as Logan Geefs took a deflected shot and lifted it up over the glove of Hogg in the Steam goal to cut the lead to 4-2.
This goal rounded out the scoring as there was no scoring in the third period, and ended in a 4-2 Steam victory.
The victory propels the Steam into first place in the Okanagan Division, one point up on the Kelowna Chiefs who they will take on in Kelowna on Friday night.
The Steam will be able to clinch a first place finish in the Okanagan Division with a regulation win over the Chiefs on Friday night. They will then return home to play their final game of the regular season on Saturday against the Osoyoos Coyotes.
