Experience paves road to Murdoch Final for Castlegar Rebels, eliminate Leafs in five games
By Bruce Fuhr
In the end experience, and hitting anything and everything in a green and white jersey, paved the road for the Castlegar Rebels to advance into the second round of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League playoffs.
First period goals by Anthony Delong and Cody Disher and less than three minutes apart snapped a 1-1 tie, sparking the Rebels to a 4-2 victory over the Nelson Leafs Thursday night at the Castlegar Community Complex Arena.
Castlegar wins the best-of-seven divisional semi final 4-1 and now meets archrival Beaver Valley Nitehawks in a repeat of last year’s Murdoch Final.
The Hawks eliminated Spokane Thursday, blasting the Braves 7-2 behind the four-point performance of Christian Johnson.
“I think we just played it simple . . . got the puck back behind their “D” and wore them down, really,” Rebel captain Erik Alden, opening the scoring with his first of the post season.
“I thought it was a great effort by the entire team . . . a nice simple game.”
The constant pounding and tight checking by the Rebels never really allowed the Leafs to get anything going offensively.
An anemic power play that didn’t score in seven periods didn’t help either.
“I think their experience helped them,” said Leaf coach Frank Maida from outside a very quiet visitor’s dressing room.
“They’re a pretty organized team and have some experience up front (while) we’re a very young team that just ran out of gas and had some key injuries.”
One of those key injuries came so early in the game that Leaf sniper Patrick Martens never had a chance to break a sweat.
Nelson’s top goal scorer this season suffered a shoulder injury that forced him to the sidelines seconds into the game.
“They were keying in on Patty, and they did a good job shutting him down,” Maida admitted.
Martens finished the series only scoring twice.
“We tried to keying on their (top scorers) but they were able to battle through and get some key goals,” Maida added.
On the other bench the Rebels top scorer Stuart Walton didn’t fill the net, he assisted on others filling the net as the Castlegar native finished the series with nine assists.
“We’ve got great players all the way down our lineup which has really helped all year and our record shows it,” Alden explained. “It great to see guys are still putting up points in the playoffs, too.”
For the second straight game Nelson trailed after one period.
After Alden scored early in the game, the Leafs responded two minutes later with Colton Schell beating Jordan Gluck in the Castlegar nets.
However, Castlegar got the lead it wanted with the two goals by Delong and Disher before the period ended.
Rookie phenom Brendan Heinrich increased the lead to 4-1 after two periods before Max Mois gave the visitors a bit of life when he picked the top corner on Gluck five minutes into the third period.
Despite showing some life, Nelson was never able to penetrate the Castlegar defence on a consistent basis.
The Rebels out shot the Leafs 39-25. Midway through second period, Nelson managed only nine shots on Gluck while Andrew Walton was busy keeping the Leafs in the game at the other end.
Despite going out in five games, Maida had nothing but good things to say about his young team.
“Overall I’m proud of this team,” Maida said. “I think we had a good year. We’re a very, very young team having only two 19 year-olds and three 20-year-olds.
“I thought we battled every night all year long.”
ICE CHIPS: Nelson captain Tyler Parfeniuk, playing his final game as a junior, was back in the lineup Thursday after missing Game four Tuesday. The Kelowna product, and heart and soul of the Nelson blue line core played despite a sore knee. Parfeniuk aggravated the knee in a collision late in the second period and was seen favouring the leg while skating. . . . Defencemen Andy Miller joined Walker Sidoni, who missed his second game with an upper body injury, on the sidelines. The injuries once again forward Cameron Dobransky back to the blueline. . . For the second consecutive year the Leafs have been eliminated in the Murdoch semi final after years under the guidance of Simon Wheeldon of playing hockey well into March. . . .The game marked the conclusion to the careers of Leafs Andrew Walton and Jonathan Petrash. . . .No dates have been released as to the start of the Murdoch Final.
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