The pre-Christmas week started early for the Summerland Steam as they started with a Wednesday night matchup with the North Okanagan Knights in Armstrong.
Kienan Scott powered the Steam to a 3-1 victory scoring all three Steam goals, while goaltender Darren Hogg made 37 saves to get the victory.
The Steam and the Knights had played each other three times in 31 days including their game on Wednesday and it showed, as both teams were certainly not pleased to see the other.
On Friday night the Steam returned home to face the Chase Heat.
These teams had played once previously, that game being a 4-3 Chase win in overtime on Oct. 19 in Chase.
This meeting was not nearly as pleasant to the Heat as the Steam exploded for six goals in the third period to blow a 3-3 game wide open and give them a 9-3 victory.
They got two goal performances from Scott and Sam Nigg, while Michael Winnitoy, Daylan Robertson, Braden Saretsky, and Jordan Boultbee each tallied one goal and one assist.
Brett Huber made 22 saves in the Steam net and was solid when called upon to pick up the win.
Saturday night brought a much tougher test to the Summerland Arena for the Steam as the Kelowna Chiefs paid them a visit.
The Chiefs are the leaders of the Okanagan Division and their leading scorer, Nick Josephs, also led the KIJHL in points with 70 going into the contest.
Josephs opened the scoring in the first period before a hard-nosed effort from the Steam’s Olli Dickson tied the score at one near the end of the first period.
In the second period the teams exchanged goals until Summerland had a 3-2 lead.
The lead, however, did not last long, as Nick Josephs took control of the hockey game and led his team to three goals in a little under five minutes that saw a 3-2 deficit turn to a 5-3 lead going to the third period.
In the third the Steam came out with a purpose.
They were helped by the Chiefs taking consecutive major penalties from Jordan Salahor and Austin Fisher to put the Steam on the power play for a whole 10 minutes.
On the first five minutes the Steam were not able to generate more than one shot, but on the second five-minute penalty they were able to score twice.
The goals came from team captain Daylan Robertson and Braden Saretsky to tie the game at five.
The score would stay the same all the way into overtime, when with 59 seconds remaining on the clock the Steam took a delay of game penalty that sent Kelowna to a four-on-three power play.
Josephs once again set things up for Levi Johnson, who moved out from behind the net with the puck and roofed one on goaltender Brett Huber to lift the Chiefs over victory.
Josephs finished with three goals and two assists to bring his KIJHL leading point total to 75 in just 33 games.
The Steam then took a seven-day holiday break.
On Saturday, the team defeated the Osoyoos Coyotes 3-2 in overtime.
The first period was scoreless.
In the second, following an Osoyoos goal, Robertson scored at 13:20, assisted by Riley Hunt and Scott.
A power play goal by Burton, with 35 seconds remaining, gave the Steam the lead. Scott and Hunt assisted.
Osoyoos brought the game to a tie with a goal in the third period.
Hunt scored in overtime, at 4:01, with the assists by Alex Williams and Easton Bodeux.
On Sunday, Osoyoos defeated Summerland in a 3-2 decision at home.
Hunt scored for the Steam at 7:35 in the first period, assisted by Josh DaCosta and Boultbee.
The Coyotes then scored on a power play in the second period and added two more goals in the third before DaCosta scored for the Steam on a power play at 7:57. Nigg and Burton assisted.
Live broadcasts of every game can be found on KIJHL.ca and watch live every home game, or visit Summerlandsteam.blogspot.ca for pre-game and post-game comments.
