Leafs must answer Castlegar's intensity to advance on KIJHL playoff trail
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr, The Nelson Daily
Should the Nelson Leafs be even in its Kootenay International Junior Hockey League Murdoch Divisional playoff semi with the Castlegar Rebels?
Or should the Rebels hold a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series?
What is true is if the Leaf netminder Andrew Walton takes a night off or if Nelson continues to give Rebels power play after power play, this series will be over sooner than later.
“We definitely can’t play like this and expect to win,” said Leaf captain Tyler Parfeniuk minutes after Nelson tied the series with a 2-1 win Saturday in Castlegar.
“We’ve got to find a way to get some shots on (Jordan) Gluck,” added Parfeniuk, sporting a full head of team-bonding bleach-blonde hair.
“We’ve made it easy on him,” he added. “He’s played really well but we haven’t got many opportunities on him.”
For the second straight game Nelson started slow, out shot by a combined 21-9 in consecutive first periods.
Saturday, Nelson managed to survive the Castlegar onslaught thanks to MVP performance by team MVP, Andrew Walton.
“All year we’ve had faith in (Andrew) even if he has one bad game there’s not going to be too many that follow that so we know he’s going to bounce back,” Parfeniuk exclaimed.
Bounce back?
Walton did more than bounce back. With the game scoreless and Castlegar on a power play, Walton somehow stopped a sure goal with the Rebel player already raising his hands into the air thinking the puck was in the net.
So do the Rebels have a bugaboo about playing their former teammate?
No so says Rebel captain Erik Alden.
“He’s playing well, he’s making some saves . . . he’s got horseshoes on his (side) for sure, but we beat him last year when he played for Fernie so I think we just have to keep working and things will start going our way,” Alden explained.
Games three and four go Monday and Tuesday at the NDCC Arena. Game time is 7 p.m.
Game five is scheduled for Thursday in Castlegar.
The winner plays for the Murdoch Division title against the survivour of the Beaver Valley/Spokane series.
The Nitehawks lead the series 2-0 with game three Monday in the Lilac City.
SERIES NOTES: Despite losing 5-1 in the opener, Nelson finished the game out shooting the Rebels 31-27. Castlegar, however, leads the series in shots 64-27. . . . Penalty minutes, Nelson leads 47-38 and most likely will miss defenceman Eric Spring for Monday after picking up a game misconduct in addition to a five-minute checking-from-behind penalty Saturday.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
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