The Castlegar Rebels came back from a bad loss to the Nelson Leafs on Friday with a win on Saturday night.
The Rebels won 6-2 after coming out strong in the first — scoring four points before the mid-period time out — and keeping the pressure up all game.
Brandon Costa scored the Rebels first goal unassisted and then Brady Daniels, also unassisted, deked out Caiden Kreitz to score the second.
Almost immediately after Daniels’ goal, the Leafs’ Brent Headon took two minutes for delay of game and Chris Breese, assisted by John Moeller, scored his first goal of the night.
Brady Daniels, assisted by Reid Wilson, scored his second goal of the night before the mid-period break, leaving the score 4-0.
In the last five minutes of the period, Breese, assisted by Scott Rademaker and Chase Daniels, scored his second goal of the night, giving the Rebels a five-point lead.
Edward Lindsey then scored an unassisted goal early in the second, giving the Rebels a six-point lead, but coming off the mid-period break the Leafs’ Ryan Piva, assisted by Sawyer Hunt, got his team in the game with their first goal.
The Leafs struggled to catch up in the third, but Justin Podgorenko was the only one to find the net and the game ended with a victory for the Rebels.
Bill Rotheisler, head coach and general manager for the Rebels, was happy with how his team played.
“Nelson plays hard. Like they play tough, they play tougher than us and they get their extra shots in. They’re great in the grey area, but I was proud of our guys for overcoming it and keeping their heads and closing out the game in class,” he said.
Asked if he thought his team played a consistent game, he said, “We didn’t play a consistent game but that’s not the boys’ fault. When you jump out to a 5-0 lead, the rest of the game, no matter what, is not going to be consistent because one team is going to be trying to re-establish their alpha-ism and the other one is trying to get out of the game with the win.”
The Rebels defence during the game was solid, with players clearing the puck away from their net quickly and effectively on a lot of plays.
Rotheisler praised his defencemen.
“Our defence played very, very well tonight and … the third period was a bit different because our game plan changes, but the first two periods I thought the shots that they did take were from the outside and we weren’t too concerned about those shots,” he said.
Rotheisler also gave a shout out to referee Bronson Tazelaar for doing a great job.
“Even our team needs cooling down sometimes and I think it was good to see that he was taking control of the game there,” he said.
The Rebels and the Leafs will meet for Game 5 in Nelson on Monday at 7 p.m.
