Creston Valley Thunder Cats dealt two Eddie Mountain Division rivals losses in a weekend to remember.
The Cats went in first place at the Kimberley Dynamiters’ barn on Saturday night and laid an 8-1 beating on one of the KIJHL’s top teams.
Carson Small was named the Away Star, but Ronnie Wilkie’s five-point effort and captain Liam Plunkett’s four points dominated the penalty-filled scoresheet.
Creston outshot the Dynamiters 11-10 in the opening period, but Plunkett (Mitchell Wolfe and Wilkie) was the only player to score.
The floodgates opened in the second with power play efforts from Jack McArdie (Plunkett) and Tyler Witzke (Wilkie and Justen James) giving the T-Cats a three-goal lead before Brock Palmer put his team on the board with a power play goal of his own. Wilkie responded with two goals, though, and Creston skated off with a 5-1 lead after 40 minutes. Darby Berg and James earned assists on the fourth goal and Plunkett set up the fifth.
Things got vicious in the third after Small (Bryce Sturm), Wolfe (Witzke) and Wilkie (for the hat trick, from Plunkett) put the Thunder Cats into an 8-1 lead.
Half a dozen players were ejected for game misconducts in the period and several fights broke out. In the final melee, two Kimberley players earned penalties for head contact, including a 5-minute major to Harrison Ridson.
Coach Brad Tobin’s refusal to say much about the game on Sunday spoke volumes.
“We’ll take two points in Kimberley, minus the extracurricular activities any day of the week,” he said. “I’m not going to comment on anything else from that game.”
The Thunder Cats outshot their opponents in each period and ended up with a 38-29 margin.
Kimberley absorbed only its fifth loss of the season and now only has one less loss than the Thunder Cats.
Liam Rycroft earned Away Star honours for his efforts in Friday night’s 3-1 win in Fernie over the Ghostriders, but it took a solid team effort to earn the two points. Wilkie (Wolfe) and James (Wilkie and Berg) put the Thunder Cats into a 2-0 lead in the opening frame, and Fernie was never able to catch up.
“I like the way that are team is coming together, everyone is contributing their part to our success,” the head coach and general manager said.
Austin Canete (Rycroft) scored with his team short-handed in a second period that saw Creston outshoot the home side 18-7.
A third period marker by Matt Rogers with 6:08 remaining put the Ghostriders on the board, breaking Levi Mitchell’s shutout bid, but that was all the scoring either team could muster.
Creston outshot Fernie 42-24, a stat that has become a trend in the T-Cats recent hot streak.
“We had a few players finally come back from long term injuries, so it’s nice to see that everyone is game ready now,” Tobin said. “It was great to see Austin Canete get his first KIJHL goal, especially short-handed.”
Despite a rare pointless night on Friday for Plunkett, he now has 40 points, on 14 goals and 26 assists, good for third place behind the Chase Heat’s Josh Bourne (46 points) and Justin Bond of the 100 Mile House Wranglers (41 points). Wilkie’s great weekend vaulted him into seventh place, with 36 points on a nicely balanced 19 goals and 17 assists.
With the strong weekend performance, the Thunder Cats have narrowed Kimberley’s division lead to only four points and they still have a game in hand.
The Thunder Cats were scheduled to host the Columbia Valley Rockies at home on Tuesday (after press deadline). They then head north for a Saturday game in Golden against the woeful Rockets, who have only one win in 24 games.
