At home or away, it hasn’t been easy for the Lac la Hache Tomahawks this season.
The local Central Interior Hockey League team met the Stampeders in Williams Lake on Dec. 13 and hosted the Quesnel Kangaroos on Dec. 14.
Both were high-scoring affairs between the East Division rivals, more so for the opposition, however.
Williams Lake won 9-5, while Quesnel took the two points with an 11-5 victory.
Lac la Hache (2-11) kept pace with Williams Lake (10-3-1) in the latter part of their game, but the Tomahawks were playing catch-up having given up three goals in the first.
The Hawks scored twice in the second frame, with goals by Wilfred Robbins (Kyle Crump, Tyrell Dan) and Gilbert Robbins (Donovan Nicholas, W. Robbins).
Lac la Hache matched Williams Lake’s output in the final 20 minutes with three goals, one by W. Robbins (Nicholas, Anthony Sellars) and two by Nicholas (G. Robbins, W. Robbins, Ty Moses).
Goalie Matt Brenner was in for 34 saves on 43 shots.
Against Quesnel (11-4) at the Rolf Zeis Memorial Arena, the Tomahawks got on the board first when Drew Rose (Kyle Crump) put one in just over a minute in the game. However, the Kangaroos answered with two within the next two minutes.
Crump (W. Robbins, Rose) scored in the second period for Lac la Hache. Quesnel scored three and took a 6-2 lead into third, during which they scored five more. Lac la Hache goal scorers in the last 20 minutes were Rose (Crump), W. Robbins (Rose), and Dan (Crump, W. Robbins).
Goalie William Sellars made 30 saves on 41 shots.
On the bright side, despite a guaranteed last-place finish in the East Division, all eight teams in the CIHL qualify for the playoffs.
Next, Lac la Hache travels to Quesnel for a rematch on Dec. 28, followed by games in Smithers on Jan. 4 and Houston on Jan 5. The Tomahawks are back in action in Lac la Hache to wrap up the regular season against Terrace on Jan. 11.
