Valley West Hawks score late to sweep past Kootenay Ice
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The Kootenay Ice rebounded from a lackluster performance to come close to knocking off the Valley West Hawks in BC Hockey Major Midget League action Sunday at the NDCC Arena.
The Hawks rallied from a first period deficit to edge the Ice 5-4.
The opening game of the two-game series was no contest as Valley West skated to an 8-0 shutout.
“Finally played a solid 60 minutes,” said Ice coach Brian Jones following Sunday’s one-goal loss.
“Just shows we can compete with the best in the league with that consistent effort.”
Kootenay led 2-1 after the first period as Connor Seib of Trail and Hunter Floris of Vanderhoof scored just over a minute apart to erase a 1-0 Valley West lead.
The Hawks outscored Kootenay 2-1 in the second period to send the teams into the dressing room tied at 3-3.
The teams exchanged goals early in the third before Josh Bruce scored the winning goal midway through the frame.
Reese Tambellini of Nelson and Bradley Ross of Trail also scored for Kootenay.
Curt Doyle of Nelson was solid between the pipes for Kootenay.
“We deserved a better outcome on Sunday,” Jones said.
“I was proud of the kids.”
Saturday, Valley West held period leads of 3-0 and 5-0 before coasting to the win.
Ben Evanish scored three times to lead the Hawks.
“It was a total tem struggle on Saturday from the goalies to defencemen to the forwards,” Jones admits.
Kootenay, consisting of players from Castlegar, Cranbrook, Trail, Nakusp, Nelson, Vernon, Vanderhoof and Vancouver, is back on the road again, heading Saturday to Kelowna to meet the fourth-place Okanagan Rockets in the first game of a weekend series.
Jones is hopeful the Ice players can feed off of Sunday’s strong play.
“If continue Sunday’s efforts (this weekend) we should be able to come away with points.”
Kootenay is currently tenth in the 11-team league, with a record of 1-6-1.
Next home game for the Ice is October 31 when Cariboo Cougars visit the NDCC Arena.
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