At the 5:00 p.m. it was Terrace River Kings 8-1 over the rambunctious Quesnel Kangaroos.
This turned out to be simply not the ‘Roos’ night as both teams started off looking a bit rusty but Quesnel was also looking a bit off kilter and quickly fell into taking far too many unnecessary penalties allowing Terrace to score four power play goals.
Period one was a bit more even as both teams tried to get their legs under them after a long layoff from game action. Terrace had a full line up with some additions and some injured players back and played with better speed than Quesnel and it began to show through as Quesnel penalties mounted through the second period.
In the 8:00 p.m. game the Kitimat Ice Demons cemented their 6-2 win over the Williams Lake Stampeders with a strong third period in which the they scored three goals to stretch a tight 3-2 lead at the end of two, into the winning margin.
The Ice Demons were ready for this one, skating hard against an unfamiliar Williams Lake lineup, missing many regulars, including star player Francis Johnston.
A 2-0 lead early in the first on goals from from Josh Slanina (Kyle Madsen) and Jeremy Brady (Jon Aiken, Scott McGregor) in the first eight minutes inexplicably slipped away inside two minutes of play the last 49 seconds of the first period and the first 50 seconds of the second period, when the Stamps got two short-handed goals from Dylan Richardson (both assisted by Aaron Zurak) but the Ice Demons got a break on a lucky goal, a second for Josh Slanina from behind the Stamps net, that bounced in off goaltender Justin Foote’s back to give the Demons a 3-2 lead at the second intermission.
But it was all Demons in the third. Goals from Wade Masch (with an assist to Josh Slanina), then Josh Slanina’s hat trick goal (Ben Rumley, Jeff Mildenberger) and a last minute counter from Terry Whelan (Jeff Baker, Derek Wakita) combined to make it 6-2, a bitter blow for Williams Lake who played really well for two periods but only managed five shots in the third, as the Demons out-shot them 36-28.
Tonight at 5 p.m. it’s Williams Lake versus Terrace and at 8:00 p.m. it will be the Demons versus Quesnel.
– Submitted
