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Heat and power back on

Chase squad’s power play tops in league.
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Tied up at 4-4 with less than four minutes to play in the third period, Chase Heat’s Colton Nikiforuk reaches for the puck looking for the go-ahead goal with Revelstoke Grizzlies’ goalie Liam McGarva down on the ice. - Rick Koch photo.

Scott Koch

Contributor

The trials and tribulations of operating, managing and coaching a junior hockey team are many.

There is the bottom line to worry about, there are line combinations to fret over and there are fantasies of lineups of fans anxiously awaiting entry into the Art Holding Memorial Arena.

All are doable if you provide an entertaining product, win or lose, for those able to spring some after-tax dollars.

So, prior to the weekend update, we provide a morsel of great news regarding the on-ice component. Of the 20 teams in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League, the Chase Heat have the #1 power play in the entire league.

Not too shabby considering the team is currently playing 500 hockey – win one, lose one and on and on. A bright light of good news for locals, especially when the news cycle normally contains either bad or sad items for us to mull over.

Friday night the third, Chase played host to the #1 team in their division, the Revelstoke Grizzlies.

The Stoke popped in the scoring opener before Colton Nikiforuk evened things at 1-1, assisted by Kaden Black and Zachary Fournier. But the mad bears struck again; after the first it was 2-1. In the second period the Heat struck twice on the power play, Cory Loring from Pat Brady and Josh Bourne, and then Nikiforuk from Fournier and Grady Musgrave.

In the third the Grizzlies tied it up before Bourne, assisted by Ryan Okino and Loring, regained the lead.

However the Mountain Mecca boys came right back to make a contest of it late in the game.

The icing for Chase fans arrived when “Bourne again” on the man advantage popped in the winner from Okino and Brady. The tally: three markers on six chances on the extra-man advantage.

Then it’s off to the Houseboat Capital to meet the majestic fowl, the Eagles.

For some reason these two combat units play “mellow” hockey during their meetings.

By game’s end, the fowl had left a foul taste in the mouths of the Heat.The end result a 3-1 win for Sicamous, with Brady on the power play from Okino and Kolten Moore in the second period being the only puck to find the net.

Maybe the wrestling with the bears knocked the starch out of their socks and resulted in no sign of soaring with the Eagles.

The bit of Heat produced in this one was like a candle blowing in the wind.

The Heat face the Kamloops Storm on Tuesday the seventh prior to a home and away duel with the Eagles, game time 7 p.m. in Chase on Remembrance Day, Saturday the 11th. A special ceremony will be held prior to the opening faceoff. Lest we forget.