With a little help from the Fernie Ghostriders, the North Okanagan Knights have moved into second place in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League’s Doug Birks Division.
Coupled with the Revelstoke Grizzlies’ 5-4 loss to Fernie, the 26-8-0-2 Knights leapfrogged their division rival with a 4-1 home win over the Sicamous Eagles Friday night at Nor-Val Sports Centre.
Recently acquired from the Kelowna Chiefs, Derek Andrews, a late cut by the BCHL Penticton Vees, has clicked on a unit with Josh Wickenheiser and Bryce Koch. The line finished with a combined seven points and accounted for three of North Okanagan’s goals.
“Bryce Koch was absolutely on fire,” said Knights’ assistant coach Shawn Webb. “He’s (Andrews) been everything we expected and more.”
Wickenheiser opened the scoring on a powerplay with five minutes to play in the first period. Josh Klein made it 2-0 with 31 seconds to play in the frame.
Koch scoring early in the second period, and adding a late powerplay goal in the third to round out the North Okanagan attack.
Nathan Grieve recorded the lone goal for the 13-22-1-1 Eagles.
“We’re still struggling to get 60 minutes of consistent hockey together,” said Webb. “We’re putting a lot of pressure on the boys going into a playoff run that we expect to go deep into.”
On Thursday night, the Knights, 9-1 in their last 10 games, used third-period goals by Vernon’s Tanner Burns and Andrews to double the Chase Heat 4-2 at Nor-Val.
Cory Hochhausen and defenceman Thomas Swales, a Vernon product, scored first-period goals for North Okanagan. Vernon d-man Chris Gillies assisted on both goals.
While happy with the win, Webb wants to see the Knights put away teams below them in the standings.
“Those teams we should be beating by a bigger margin, we refuse to. We just don’t seem to have that instinct to go and bury another team.”
The Heat, last in the Doug Birks at 3-33-1, got singles from Kurtis Johnson and Kevin Leschuk.
Dustin Nikkel recorded both wins for the Knights, making 23 stops against Sicamous, and 20 against the ever-improving Heat.
North Okanagan visits the Grizzlies (26-8-0-2) Wednesday night at the Revelstoke Forum.
