The Chase Heat had a hot weekend that barely cooled down in a Tuesday night road matchup against the 100 Mile House Wranglers.
The Heat had doubled up the Wranglers in front of the home crowd on Saturday winning 4-2.
The following night, the Heat thrashed the North Okanagan Knights 6-0.
Fresh off that Armstrong win, the Heat travelled to 100 Mile House for another tilt with the Wranglers on Jan. 14.
Both teams came out strong in the first period.
Read More: Thefts, domestic assaults and Highway 1 collisions keep Sicamous RCMP busy
Read More: Thousands of people bring questions to Salmon Arm library in 2019
The Heat’s Colton Nikiforuk scored first but 100 Mile House quickly answered converting a power play opportunity.
The Wranglers surged to the lead scoring another goal, only to see Chase forward Hayden Wiebe notch a shorthanded goal on an unassisted effort before the first period ended.
The second period saw the Wrangler score to take 3-2 lead, before Chase responded to even the score again followed by a go-ahead marker by Gavin Mattey.
Chase was unable to preserve the 4-3 lead in the third period as the Wranglers tied the score 4-4 late in the third period. Both teams were unsuccessful in breaking the tie during overtime.
With the tie, Chase Heat currently sit in second place in the KIJHL’s Doug Birks Division with a record of 22-12-1, putting them in good position to advance to the playoffs when the KIJHL regular season concludes in late February.
The Chase squad sits sixth overall in league-wide standings.
Read More: Salmon Arm council supports Roots & Blues’ camping application
Read More: B.C.’s Puntzi Mountain shatters record lows at -48 C
According to a blog post from the team, the team’s positive record so far has been achieved despite a rash of injuries, keeping some players out of games for lengthy periods of time.
The post also acknowledges concussions have become a too frequent occurrence this seasons, calling for rule changes to make the hits that result in head trauma less frequent and by allowing to err on the side of safety in hopes of reducing concussions either through player or team fines or lengthy player suspensions.
The Heat’s only game this coming weekend is a Friday, Jan. 17, home game against the Columbia Valley Rockies. This is the first time the Heat have taken on the Invermere-based Rockies so far this season.
—With files from the Chase Heat
<a href="https://twitter.com/SalmonArm"="
mailto:jim.elliot@saobserver.net” target=”_blank”>jim.elliot@saobserver.netLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
