Ice make most of long northern road trip, take three points from Cougars
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The Kootenay Ice hasn’t had much to cheer about this B.C. Hockey Major Midget season.
Until this past weekend in Prince George.
The Ice came away with three of four points during a two-game set against the Cariboo Cougars.
Kootenay took the opener 6-5 thanks to a game-winning goal by Nelson’s Aigne McGready-Bruce.
Sunday, the Cougars rallied back to tie the Ice 4-4 with a third-period goal by Thomas Webster.
“The bus broke down. We had to spend the night in Williams Lake . . .. It was a good old fashion road trip,” said Ice coach Rob Wright, who has experienced his share of crazy road trips during his long hockey career that spanned playing and coaching at the junior and senior ranks.
Sunday, the Ice took a 4-3 lead into the third period on two goals by Nelson’s Sam Weber and singles from Logan Wullum of Creston and Nelson’s Austin Tambellini.
Saturday, Weber continued his scoring weekend by netting another two goals to lead the Ice.
Kadrian Klimchuk of Castlegar, Ross Armour, and Trevor Van Steinburg of Cranbrook added singles.
Carson Schamerhorn and Jason Mailhiot, both of Trail, shared the netminding for Kootenay.
“We had a great weekend,” Wright explained. “We want to get everybody on board, from parents to players and coaches, to prove this is a good playoff team — something that’s never happened before — and build the confidence of the team . . . it’s starting to get there.”
Wright said the players are beginning to buy into his system.
“We used our speed very well in both games,” Wright explained.
“We got some good goaltending and stayed out of the penalty box the majority of the weekend and capitalized on some power plays which we haven’t done much of this season.”
“We’re just starting to understand that if we work hard without the puck we’re going to be successful,” Wright added.
Kootenay, 2-8-2 on the season, is back in the region this weekend to host Fraser Valley Thunderbirds in a two-game series at the NDCC Arena.
Fraser Valley is just one point ahead of the Ice in league standings.
The teams face off Saturday afternoon for a 12:30 p.m. puck drop.
Sunday, game time is 10 a.m.
“We’re really looking forward to these two games,” Wright said. “We took a couple of baby steps last weekend and now we want to take a few more (against Fraser Valley) and see if we can get some points from them.”
