After a win in 100 Mile House on Friday night (2-1 in OT), the Summerland Steam and the 100 Mile House Wranglers moved north to Williams Lake for Saturday’s return matchup. Summerland was the home team in the ‘Lake City’ and came away with a 3-2 win to finish up another four-point weekend and stretch their current win streak to six.
The Wranglers were put out to a disadvantage early on, as leading scorer and Williams Lake native Justin Bond was tagged with a major penalty for head contact and ejected from the game just 12 minutes and change into the first period.
At this time Summerland already had a 1-0 lead thanks to Cole Williams’ eighth goal of the season. The marker came unassisted at 6:11 into the game and put Summerland out to an early lead in front of 753 fans at the Cariboo Memorial Complex.
The Wranglers would get on the board in the final minute of the first period when Tyler Povelofskie beat Steam goaltender Jake Mullen to even the score at one. Nick McCabe and Tate Page would draw assists on Povelofskie’s seventh of the season to send the game to the second period locked in a 1-1 tie.
Summerland would take their lead back just 4:39 into the second period thanks to Riley Pettitt’s seventh of the campaign, assisted by Brogan Lautard. That point extended the Whitehorse, YT native’s point streak to eight games and gave the Steam a 2-1 lead. That lead would last just 1:24 as Kolby Page would tally his third of the year, an unassisted marker to bring the Wranglers and the Steam even at two.
The Steam went ahead for good with 20 seconds left in the second period. Calvin Hadley managed to get a puck behind Wranglers’ starter Zane Steeves. The goal, Hadley’s second of the season, came shorthanded. Michael McEachern and Jack Mills drew assists.
There was no scoring in the third. Summerland locked down their defensive zone and made life easy for Mullen to pick up his fourth victory in six appearances since joining the Steam.
The victory propels the Steam into second place in the Okanagan Division, tied in points with the Kelowna Chiefs but ahead in the win column. They are 13-6-2-2.
After being on the road this weekend, Summerland will now play their next three at home before finishing the month with a short trip to visit the Osoyoos Coyotes. Summerland will play Kelowna on Nov. 20, Grand Forks on Nov. 22 and the North Okanagan Knights on Nov. 24.
First up are the Chiefs who pay another visit to the Summerland Arena on Friday night. It will be a big night as FortisBC will be the game sponsor and Summerland IGA will be on hand from 6-9 p.m. accepting donations for the Summerland Food Bank. The first 100 people to drop off a small food donation will receive a ticket to Friday night’s game in exchange for their donation.
The Summerland Steam strengthened its forward group with the acquisition of forward Josh Pilon from the Revelstoke Grizzlies.
The Steam completed the deal Thursday night as Pilon, six-foot-one, 190 pounds, was acquired for Cole Woodliffe (currently with the Weyburn Red Wings of the SJHL), the playing rights of ’96 F Tyson Klingspohn (with the Springfield Falcons of the WSHL) and future considerations.
Pilon, a native of Revelstoke, has two goals and two assists in 11 games. In 2014/15, he posted 14 goals and 30 points in 49 games as a 16-year-old in a top six role and getting power-play time. Pilon is best described as a power forward, who isn’t afraid to get into the corners and dig as well as get to the front of the net.
—Trolley Talk blog.
Coyotes down Chiefs for split
The Osoyoos Coyotes opened their week with a 5-1 loss in Kelowna to the Chiefs at Rutland Arena on Nov. 11. The Coyotes returned the favour at home on Nov. 14 with a 3-0 win. Carter Robinson, Colin Bell and Ryan Morrell scored. Robinson opened the scoring at 11:42 of the first period. The third period was filled with penalties in the final 10 minutes as Bobby LaRue, Rainer Glimpel and Braeden Tuck each received two minutes for roughing and 10 minute misconducts along with Jonathan Lee, Tyler Love and Ty Dornn of the Chiefs. Brett Soles made 28 saves for his third shutout of the season. The Coyotes are next in action on Nov. 20 when they host the 100 Mile House Wranglers and on Sunday at the Osoyoos Sun Bowl at 7:35 p.m., they host the Princeton Posse in Oliver at 1:35 p.m. The Coyotes are now 15-5-0-1.
