Rebels/Ice - The Score

The Score – Red Deer 4 – Kootenay 3 (OT)

What Happened – A see-saw battle ended with the Rebels scoring in OT. The Ice capitalized on almost all of their opportunities, they just didn’t have enough of them.

The Rookie – For Kootenay fans it was their first chance to have a good look at rookie phenom Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The former first overall pick in the 2008 Bantam Draft didn’t disappoint with an assist and more chances that I could count. The kid who many expect to go first overall in the 2011 NHL Draft sees the ice better than some that play there right now.

The Goals – Eager to capitalize on some momentum found 24 hours early in Red Deer, Kootenay captain Dustin Sylvester wired his 7th of the season past Rebel starter Kraymer Barnstable 4:01 into the game with Rebel blueliner Alex Petrovic in the box for cross-checking… Just over two minutes later Rebel import forward Andrej Kudrna thread the needle with a beautiful pass that sent Willie Coetzee in alone on Todd Mathews. He went shelf and tied it at one… In the second with the Ice buzzing Dustin Sylvester benefitted from a Rebel neutral zone turnover and went in alone on Barnstable. Sylvester went five-hole and gave the Ice a 2-1 lead… The Rebels tied it on a shot by Nathan Green coming down the left wing that Mathews took off his shoulder. The puck went straight up and straight down his back, sitting on the goal-line for the easy tap in for Coetzee… The Rebels took the lead on another rush in which Josh Cowen centred a pass that Brett Ferguson somehow tapped past Mathews at 16:16… While killing a penalty late in the game and generating next to nothing in terms of offence a two-on-two started by Dustin Sylvester sends the puck to the Rebel corner. A scrum ensued and Rebel D Cullen Morin dropped his stick, steps on it and falls while Kevin Kings walks out of the corner and out-waits Barnstable to tie the game with his sixth of the season, shorthanded, forcing overtime… The Rebels would get the last laugh however when Colin Archer banged into the game-winner in the extra period after Willie Coetzee got in on a great scoring chance in which Mathews kicked out; right to Archer however who buried the winner.

The Turning Point – Tough to find a particular point in this one that saw three leads by both clubs evaporate but besides the OT winner the fight following the Sylvester goal between Alex Petrovic and Drew Czerwonka seemed to spur the Rebels after a poor start to the second period.

The Fight – Sophomore blueliner Alex Petrovic dropped the mitts with Ice forward Drew Czerwonka for a tilt that was even and rather uneventful, except it lit a fire under the Rebels and they scored two goals to take the lead not long after.

The Crowd – 2713 – Rather lively for a change with lots of energy. Especially from a kid with a painted face and home-made sign made out of cardboard cheering on the home-side, until he was asked to refrain from waving his sign while the play was on by a rather grumpy usher.

The Skinny – The overtime loss breaks the club’s modest three-game winning streak but still produces a point – with seven of a possible eight points over the last four games – with the Ice sitting at 8-11-1 and 17 points, one shy of the Rebels and two back of the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Daily Townsman Three Stars
1. Willie Coetzee – You now see what the Detroit Red Wings saw when they signed him as a free agent out of training camp.
2. Dustin Sylvester – Captain’s got his groove back. A six point weekend over two games including two goals Saturday
3. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Two assists; a 16-year-old playing like he’s 19.




Game Summary:

Rebels 4 @ Ice 3 (OT)

CRANBROOK, B.C. - Western Hockey League summary for regular season game between the Red Deer Rebels and the Kootenay Ice. November 7, 2009.
Colin Archer streaked in on a rebound and buried his second of the season in overtime as the Red Deer Rebels edged the Kootenay Ice 4-3 in WHL action Saturday night. Dustin Sylvester, with two goals, and Kevin King with a late short-handed marker to send it to overtime scored for the Ice while Willie Coetzee notched two goals and added an assist with Brett Ferguson getting the other Rebel marker.
Kraymer Barnstable stopped 27 of 30 shots to get the win while Todd Mathews turned aside 28 of 32 in taking the loss.

First Period
1. Kootenay, Sylvester 7 (Boomer, Rintoul) 4:01 (pp)
2. Red Deer, Coetzee 10 (Kudrna, Archer) 6:33



Penalties -- Petrovic RD (roughing) 2:19, Borejko RD (roughing) 6:46, Weller RD (elbowing) Morenko RD (roughing) Montgomery Ktn (roughing, slashing) 6:46, Machacek Ktn (roughing) 10:32, Deagle RD (slashing) 13:47,

Second Period
3. Kootenay, Sylvester 8 6:25
4. Red Deer, Coetzee 11 (Green, Kudrna) 11:34,
5. Red Deer, Ferguson 6, (Cowen, Nugent-Hopkins) 16:16


Penalties -- Petrovic RD Czerwonka Ktn (fighting) 6:51, Molle Ktn (holding) 7:31,

Third Period
6. Kootenay, King 6 (Leach, Sylvester) 16:41 (sh)

Penalties -- Weller RD (slashing) 2:24, 'Reinhart Ktn (hooking) 15:07, Green RD Machacek Ktn (unsportsmanlike conduct) 16:11.

Overtime
7. Red Deer, Archer 2 (Coetzee, Nugent-Hopkins) 2:54

Penalties -- None.


Shots on goal by
Kootenay: 10 13 6 1 - 30
Red Deer: 6 13 10 3 - 32

Goal -- Kootenay: Todd Mathews (L, 4-4-1) Red Deer: Kraymer Barnstable (W, 7-4)

Power Plays -- (goals-chances)
Kootenay: 1-4
Red Deer: 0-3

Referee -- Devin Klein. Linesman -- Sean Donnelly, Scott Sharun.

Attendance -- 2713 (4264)

Scratches --
Kootenay: Brayden McNabb (knee - 4-6 weeks), Luke Paulsen (ankle - 2-4 weeks), Christian Magnus (finger - day-to-day), Matt Fraser (knee - 1-2 weeks), Simon Skrudland (flu).
Red Deer: Nick Bell (ankle - indefinite), Turner Elson (healthy), Colten Mayor (healthy)

Kootenay wins three

Kootenay pushed their modest winning streak to three after beating the Red Deer Rebels 4-1 Friday in Red Deer.

Jesse Ismond opened the scoring for the Ice when he banged in a rebound off a Petr Senkerik point-shot. Kootenay’s power play – ranked 19th in the league going into the game – clicked early against the Rebels with the return of Drew Czerwonka causing havoc in front of the Rebel net, Senkerik sent a shot from the blueline that produced a rebound for the waiting Ismond, who deposited his third of the year.

In the second some good work on a dump in saw Max Reinhart send a laser of a pass to the slot where Kevin King neatly deflected in the puck past Darcy Kuemper to make it 2-0. Kootenay’s third goal was a strange one in that Kuemper actually lost complete sight of the puck in that he was actually looking at the wrong side of the ice when Dustin Sylvester fired the puck past him to make it 3-0.

Kootenay went up 4-0 in the third period when Petr Senkerik’s shot from the point was deflected past Kraymer Barnstable who had replaced Kuemper after his gaffe on the third Kootenay goal. Red Deer finally solved Mathews with rookie Brendan Hurley in the box on a bit of a phantom call but Rebel phenom Ryan Nugent-Hopkins found Andrej Kudma with a beauty of a saucer pass that he tapped past Mathews to make it 4-1.

Todd Mathews was named the game's first star stopping 34 shots and easily avenged his last visit to Red Deer - a 7-1 loss in the second game of the season - and was Kootenay's best player. Dustin Sylvester notched a goal and couple of assists as did D Petr Senkerik, filling the void left by Brayden McNabb's knee injury, with a goal and two helpers.

The two teams meet in the return bill Saturday night at the Rec Plex. Gametime is 7PM.

In other news there's a couple of Ice prospects - well, drafted players that have chosen the NCAA route but remain on the club's protected list - that will meet in the World Junior A Challenge Gold Medal game in Summerside, PEI. Canada West - made up of Junior A players from the four provinces - features Winnipeg forward Brendan O'Donnell, 17, who plays for the Winnipeg South Blues of the MJHL. Canada West will play Team USA which features forward Colten St. Clair of the Fargo Force of the USHL. O'Donnell and St. Clair were selected with concurrent Ice picks in 2007. O'Donnell in the 9th round (196th overall) and St. Clair, a native of Phoenix, AZ, in the 10th round (218th overall). Both decided that the WHL was not for them with O'Donnell committing to North Dakota next season and St. Clair originally verbally committed to Colorado College. He has since changed his mind and will join O'Donnell at UND next season.

St. Clair sits 8th in tournament scoring with two goals and three assists while O'Donnell has yet to get a point in four games.

Ice injuries start to heal/changes

UPDATE - 16-year-old former 2nd round pick Ryan Bloom is in the lineup with the Ice tonight against Red Deer. Bloom, a Calgary product, was called up from the Calgary Midget Buffaloes.

Ice radio voice Jeff Hollick over at his blog (Between the Lines - on the right) reports that Nathan Lieuwen has been diagnosed with a migraine and not a concussion as first thought. He'll return to the club this weekend and skate with them on Monday....

Thanks to the reader from Abbottsford for the update who said the same thing a few days back....

G Kevin Jacyna, 17, a goaltender from Calgary who made the club's list after training camp, will be the back-up to Todd Mathews for the weekend.

LW Drew Czerwonka will also see his first action in 16 games this weekend after returing from a leg laceration.... D Cason Machacek also returns from a concussion.

Matt Fraser (shoulder), Lieuwen, D Brayden McNabb (knee), Christian Magnus (finger) and Luke Paulsen (ankle) are all still out.

In league news the Spokane Chiefs had to get down to three overage players with the return of forward Ryan Letts and in the process dealt Cranbrook product Dustin Donaghy, a forward/defense who spent the better part of three seasons with the Chiefs including their Memorial Cup run two years ago, to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for an 8th round bantam pick in 2010. The Lethbridge Herald has the story of Donaghy re-uniting with his old Bantam teammate Carter Bancks who hails from Marysville here.

Kootenay still has room for one more 20-year-old...

On a personal note, as noted a few posts ago things have changed for me in the writing side of things. After almost 14 years I'm no longer writing for the Kootenay News Advertiser effective immediately. However there will be stories posted but they'll be for another publication.

More this weekend...

Iron an all-star at Challenge Cup

UPDATE: - The club announced in their weekly release today that D Brayden McNabb will miss 4-6 weeks due to a knee injury while rookie D Luke Paulsen is out four weeks with an ankle injury. That would put McNabb back somewhere around early to mid-December which could mean only one thing: his shot at the World Junior team is all but gone.

Kootenay prospect Jared Iron was named to the Western Canada U-16 Challenge Cup tournament held in Blackfalds, AB this week.

The tournament, a WHL sponsored event that featured the best 15-year-olds from each of the four Western Provinces in a four-team tournament format, was a good one for the Northern Saskatchewan product. You might remember that the 6th round Bantam pick from last May drove three hours twice a week just to practice in Meadow Lake from his home in Canoe Narrows.

The tournament also featured forward Colby Cave on teams Saskatchewan and goaltender Mackenzie Skapski who played with Team BC and finished fourth after losing the Bronze medal to Iron's Team Saskatchewan.

And finally here's a KIJHL tidbit from the weekend: In Kimberley Saturday night between the hometown Dynamiters and the Fernie Ghostriders there was actually a tie. Yes, somewhere in the hockey world there are still ties in the standings. After a deadlocked 60 minutes with both teams tied at 2, a four-on-four OT for five minutes solved nothing and then a five minute, 3-on-3 overtime solved nothing. No shootout just a good, old-fashioned one point tie.

The Score - Ice/T-Birds

The Score – Kootenay 1 – Seattle 0 OT

What Happened – Kootenay outplayed a road-weary and sick Seattle T-Bird squad but couldn’t solve goaltender Calvin Pickard until 3:54 of OT.

The Goal – After what seemed like a lifetime Dominik Pacovsky corralled a puck along the half-wall with 1:06 left in overtime and found Ice forward Jesse Ismond in the slot for the one-timer that beat Pickard.

The Flu – No, not H1N1, but the T-Birds were missing three regulars to illness. Not as bad as the seven regulars missing one night prior in Medicine Hat – a 11-2 loss to the Tigers – but short none-the-less. Tonight’s game was also to include a second referee – Brett Iverson – but he was also scratched. It’s not known if it was a healthy one or not.

The Penalties – Ryan Molle took an interference penalty with just over two minutes to go in the second and then rookie Joey Leach sent a puck into the stands for a T-Bird 5-on-3. Goaltender Todd Mathews got into the act with a slash on a T-Bird forward right in front of his net and referee Steve Papp. Kootenay played down two men for almost three minutes but the Birds only managed two shots on the power play that straddled the second and third periods. For good measure Kevin King took a hooking penalty not long after Leach’s expired, putting the Ice down two men once again. T-Bird forward Colin Jacobs negated the three straight two man advantages with a hooking penalty of his own a minute later.

The Hush – Less than a minute into the second period Ice Super-D Brayden McNabb was hit along the blueline boards by T-Bird forward Lindsay Nielsen. It wasn’t a bad hit by any stretch but McNabb went in awkwardly and appeared to strain his left knee. If he’s gone any real length of time this season could get real ugly. Ice head coach Mark Holick said after the game that the knee/ankle injury would keep McNabb sidelined for at least a week. For good measure rookie defenseman Luke Paulsen also suffered an ankle injury and was on crutches after the game.

The Infirmary – If you’re keeping count Kootenay now has McNabb, Paulsen and Cason Machacek – all d-men – as well as forwards Matt Fraser (knee 1-2 weeks), Drew Czwerwonka (leg), Christian Magnus (finger) and goaltender Nathan Lieuwen (concussion) on the injury list.

The Review – At the five minute mark of the third with the Ice on the power play the Rec Plex video review booth was used for the first time when Senkerik rattled a point-shot off both posts. After further review the puck stayed out.

The Kid – The T-Birds called up Connor Sanvido, a 16-year-old forward currently playing for the BC Major Midget Vancouver Northeast Chiefs. Sanvido, you’ll remember, lit up the BC Winter Game tournament held in Kimberley and Cranbrook and led the Fraser Valley team to a gold medal almost two years ago. Sanvido was a 1st round pick for the Birds in 2008 selected one spot ahead of Ice forward Brendan Hurley.

The Save – With the Ice still on the power play Jonathon Parker got free on a shorthanded breakaway and deked goaltender Todd Mathews but Mathews stretched the pad out for the great save.

The Back Judge – How competitive is Mathews? After a particularly ineffective power play late in the game a ‘shoot the expletive-deleted puck’ came from who I thought was one of those impatient fans in Section FG. Turns out it was Mathews. Most of those in attendance whole-heartedly agreed.

The Skinny – Kootenay improves to 7-11 and have won two straight with 14 points, moving two clear of the Hurricanes and tied with the Regina Pats for tenth in the Eastern Conference.

The Crowd – 2695

Rec Plex Three Stars
1. Todd Mathews – Was solid for his first no-no of the season and finally on the winning side of a great performance.
2. Calvin Pickard – The younger brother of Chet was superb, and could even be better.
3. Jesse Ismond – The snake-bitten sniper got his second of the season with the game-winner.

Up Next – Friday the club travels to Red Deer and Saturday the Rebels are back at the Plex with the league’s newest phenom, forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

Lieuwen out.....

The news doesn't get any better for the Ice as the infirmary now includes goaltender Nathan Lieuwen who is out indefinitely with a concussion after a collision with a Winter Hawk forward Friday night... This, ironically enough, on the eve that G Thomas Heemskerk with the Everett Silvertips returns to the 'Plex for the first time since leaving the club and requesting a trade 11 months ago.

On another note the Kamloops Blazers announced that they've fired head coach Barry Smith. This after a blazing start to the season going 8-2-2 before losing their last five straight games. Sheesh, tough crowd.

More later...

The Score - Moose Jaw...

The Score – Moose Jaw 1 – Kootenay 0

What Happened – Goaltender Todd Mathews was spectacular and if not for his heroics the score would have much, much worse.

The Goal – Only one which deflected off Moose Jaw forward Dylan Hood in the slot after Travis Hamonic’s point-shot, was stopped by Mathews, only to trickle across the goal-line.

The Up and Comers – In two straight nights Kootenay fans were treated to the up and coming stars of the WHL. First Portland, with forwards Ty Rattie, 16, and Brad Ross, 17, - along with 19-year-old Luke Walker, a walk-on list player who made the Hawks in 2007 who hails from Castlegar. Then the Warriors with D Travis Hamonic and forward Quinton Howden. Two teams that have struggled for years and are now reaping the benefits of high drafting positions.

The Shots – The Warriors out-shot the Ice 35-18 and at one time lead 19-6 through almost half the game. G Todd Mathews was the difference on this night drawing rousing ovations from those in attendance at least three times.

The Skinny – Kootenay sits at 5-10, tied with the 4-9-2 Lethbridge Hurricanes for last in the Central and last in the Eastern Conference.

The Crowd – 2477. The days of 3000 plus to a weekend hockey game in this town are clearly gone. Attendance is down a ton and rink advertising, bread and butter of this club, has gone the same way with a number of empty sign boards around the ‘Plex.

Rec Plex Three Stars
1. D Travis Hamonic – The Warriors mined a great one with the 9th round pick in ‘05
2. G Todd Mathews – Spectacular against his old mates
3. G Jeff Bosch – Stopped Kootenay when he had to.

What it means – Kootenay’s 5-10 and five games under .500 since, uh, forever

Up Next – Everett and former goaltender Thomas Heemskerk are here Wednesday.