By Jeff Bromley /
The Kootenay Ice held their annual Teddy Bear toss to provide toys for the less fortunate Friday but unfortunately couldn’t get the win.
Outplaying the WHL’s best club for the better part of the night, the Ice came up on the short end of a 3-1 decision.
Traveling to Calgary Sunday for the return bill, the Ice once again had the upper hand before the Hitmen scored a late goal to tie the game, with Calgary eventually winning in a shootout.
The Ice took out their frustration on the Medicine Hat Tigers Tuesday night, jumping out to a 4-0 lead before settling for a 6-4 win.
“I thought we deserved a better fate against the Hitmen,” said Ice head coach Mark Holick as his club improved to 17-15-1-2 on the season, good for 37 points and seventh in the Eastern Conference. “But tonight I loved our first period. It was probably one of our better first periods in a long time and we’ve played some pretty good hockey as of late.”
Kootenay took advantage of the speedy and high-scoring Tigers, who arrived just 45 minutes before game-time due to bad weather. The Ice jumped out to a 4-0 lead through the game’s first half and appeared to be on track for a rout until the Tigers, the WHL’s highest scoring team, scored three goals in less than five minutes to draw within one goal.
“We had a little lull there in the second and responded back in the third. That’s a good team (the Tigers) and they can score almost whenever they feel like it but we did a good job against them,” said Holick.
Kootenay scored two more goals in the final minute of the second period to lead 6-3 en route to the win, taking full advantage of what looked like a road-weary Tigers squad as the Ice went 4-6 on the powerplay.
“I don’t think they got here until after six o’clock. We had the warm-up right at 6:30 and we thought we used that to our advantage. We certainly wanted to come out and take it to them in the first period and I thought we did that.”
Quick Hits
The Ice received some shocking news Friday when it was revealed that highly-touted goaltending prospect Mackenzie Skapski, 15, was the lone serious injury resulting from a Friday afternoon bus crash as his club, the Fraser Valley Major Midget Bruins, traveled to Williams Lake for a stopover en route to Prince George. Twenty-four players and coaches were treated and released for minor injuries, save for Skapski, who was airlifted to Vancouver Children’s Hospital for reconstructive facial surgery. As of Monday, the 15-year-old third round draft pick of the Ice in the 2009 Bantam Draft was out of ICU and is recovering from surgery…D Brayden McNabb picked up a goal and two assists twice, in games against the Edmonton Oil Kings in a 5-2 win and also against the Tigers…LW Dustin Sylvester had four assists against the Oil Kings and added another two against the Tigers...Kootenay will finish the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule with a home-and-home series with the Lethbridge Hurricanes starting Friday in Lethbridge…Kootenay’s Teddy Bear Toss night totalled over 2,300 stuffed animals thrown onto the ice when forward Jesse Ismond scored Friday night. |