The Kitimat Ice Demons tucked away two points to
consolidate and clinch first place in the CIHL West Division,
with 20 points, after defeating the Prince Rupert
Rampage 7-5 on December 10 at Tamitik.
It looked much easier than it was as the Ice Demons
let 4-1 and 6-3 leads slip away as a feisty, shorthanded
Rampage team kept pushing back and closing
the lead. It took a clever empty
net goal, a hat trick goal for
centre man Josh Slanina, to
add insurance to the 6-5 lead
the Demons were protecting
after Rupert’s Jared Meers,
with his own hat trick goal,
pulled the Rampage within
a goal.
But with the Rampage
goaltender Tremain Kurka
on the bench and visitors
applying pressure with six
attackers, Kitimat defence
stalwart Jeff Mildenberger
lofted a sweet pass just
ahead of Slanina entering
the Rupert zone and Slanina
made no mistake, guiding
the puck carefully into the
empty net.
Prince Rupert and Kitimat
were both missing key
players, but the Rampage
had only 13 skaters and two
goaltenders, while the Demons
were able to fi ll in
with some younger players
and rolled four lines to wear
the Rampage out with their
skating in the big arena.
It was working well, but
the Rampage, despite being
behind, always seemed
able to apply a little extra
forecheck pressure to the
defence and achieve some
success around the net and
wouldn’t go away.
It was a cleanly played
game with only four minor
penalties assessed to the
Rampage and six to the Ice
Demons. There were three
power play goals, one for
the Rampage in the fi rst
period and two for the Demons,
one each in the fi rst
and second periods.
The opening and only
goal of the fi rst was scored
by Steve Venman, who
simply redirected a spoton
pass from Chris Vilness
in the corner with just fi ve
minutes gone in the game.
A second assist went to
Derek Wakita.
Five minutes into the
second Josh Slanina got his
fi rst of three with a hot snap
shot to the top right corner,
which became a favourite
target for the Demons the
rest of the night. Jon Aiken
and Scott McGregor assisted.
Not to be outdone,
Rampage’s Jared Meers
got the fi rst of his hat trick
seven minutes later, as the
Rampage pressed back to
stop the fl ow of play by the
Demons.
Slanina responded with
his second goal of the game
after Doug Wilson carried
the puck unmolested into
the Rupert zone and passed
to Slanina who repeated his
fi rst shot to the top right
corner over the goaltender’s
shoulder.
Moments later Chris
Vilness saw his shot to the
same spot glance off the
glove and miss by an inch.
A minute after that
Nick Markowski scored a
slick goal coming off the
half boards and sliding a
hard wrist shot along the
ice into the net after taking
a nice relay from Ian Coleman
and Chris Vilness.
And a minute later a
turnover goal by Derek
Baker (Ryan Stace-Smith,
Jacob Sanburtano) gave the
Rampage an extra lift and
they pressed for a 4-3 goal and got it from Meers,with his second (Bryan Tates.)
This forced the Demons back on the return offensive and Wade Masch went through the defence to restore a two goal lead, with assists from Ian Coleman and David Venman.
Chris Vilness. with 1.15 left in the period. came in alone on Kurka and went to his stick side to beat him cleanly (Derek Wakita, Jeff Mildenberger, to make the score 6-3 at the intermission.
While the Demons continued to dominate on the offence, the Rampage got its act together on the forecheck to reduce that lead on goals by Bryan Tates (Jean Luc Fournier, Justin Fontaine) and Meers’ hat-trick goal to make it 6-5 with just four minutes remaining.
Mildenberger’s late pass to Slanina gave him his first hat trick as a Demon, and even into an empty net, he’ll take it to seal the two point win.
In other games December 10 the Smithers Steelheads maintained the league lead with 24 points with a 9-1 thrashing of the Hazelton Wolverines – and retained its undefeated position.
In the East Division the Williams Lake Stampeders beat the Quesnel Kangaroos 3-2 in Quesnel and the Omineca Ice was on top of the Lac La Hache Tomahawks by a score of 11-2.
The following day the Tomahawks took a drubbing again, 13-6, at the hands of Quesnel.