Another winning weekend has secured the Sicamous Eagles top place in their division, and second place in the tightly contested Kootenay International Junior Hockey League.
The Eagles transitioned into December with a 9-3 win over the Chase Heat, followed by a 3-1 at-home victory versus the North Okanagan Knights.
Sicamous dominated the first period in their Nov. 28 contest at Chase’s Art Holding Memorial Arena. Scoring began early for the Eagles with a marker at 18:55 from Kelyn Opel, assisted by Jameson Stoski and Connor Buick. As the Heat continued to live up to at least half their name, Sicamous continued to score. A goal from Brett Trofanenko, assisted by Corbin Marcotte and Brad Crump, and two from Steven Powers – one assisted by Brin Feledichuk and the other off of Nathan Grieve and Nicholas Astasiewicz – put the Eagles into a comfortable 4-0 lead going into the second period.
Cameron Berry potted an early marker in the second frame, aided by Connor Fynn. Two minutes later, however, the Eagles realized they weren’t alone on the ice when Chase managed to find the back of Jack Surgenor’s net. Berry scored his second goal of the evening at the halfway point, aided by Trofanenko, but the final goal of the frame, at 7:30, was Chase’s doing.
Going into the third frame, it was clear a 6-2 lead wasn’t enough for Sicamous. Both teams amplified their efforts, but the Eagles excelled when it actually came to putting the biscuit in the basket. The final three Sicamous goals came from Grieve, (assisted by Powers and Aidan Nisse), Opel (Derek Miskiman and Crump) and Brayden Taekema (Opel and Nisse), with the final Chase marker coming late in the frame.
First and second star honours went to Opel and Berry.
The home-ice advantage didn’t equate to an easy win for the Eagles in their Dec. 1 game against the Knights. Scoring didn’t occur until near the halfway mark in the first frame, with a power-play goal from Taekema, assisted by Quinn Rempel and Devries. Opel chipped in goal number two near the end of the frame off of Devries and Corbin Marcotte.
The Knights outshot the Eagles 12-9 in the second period, but neither team was able to turn those shots into goals.
North Okanagan’s single came after the halfway mark in the third frame, after which they pulled their goalie. With 42 seconds left on the clock, Connor Fynn took advantage of the Knight-less net to knock in the final goal of the evening.
First, second and third star honours went to Devries, Surgenor and Crump, respectively.
As of Monday, Dec. 3, the two wins put the Eagles at 37 points in the KIJHL, behind only the Nelson Leafs at 44, but followed closely by the Knights, the Princeton Posse and the Fernie Ghostriders.
The Eagles have six more games before the Christmas break. The first is on Dec. 7 versus Castlegar (location to be announced). The last game of the season is Dec. 19 versus the Heat, while the final home game is Dec. 15, versus the KIJHL’s one U.S. offering, the Spokane Braves.