Ice find the goals....

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Kootenay gains weekend split

by Jeff Bromley

To begin what would be the club’s longest road trip in a decade the Kootenay Ice boarded the bus in search of one key ingredient; goals. After finding their offensive touch, if not the back of the net, on Friday against the Calgary Hitmen, they struck pay dirt Saturday against the always accommodating Medicine Hat Tigers in game one of a six-game, ten-day road trip through the prairies.

On Friday at the Rec Plex Hitmen back-up goaltender Michael Snider stole the show, stopping 39 of 40 shots to gain first-star honours and the win for the rival Hitmen. “It was exciting to get in there and string a couple of wins together,” said Snider, who snared his second straight win Friday. “I’ve never played back-to-back in this league and tonight everything was hitting me.”

All things considered - and on this night they had to be as the club was battling a major flu bug that had two starters , D Hayden Rintoul and D Cason Machacek, in bed and a host of others stuffed full of TamiFlu - the effort was to be commended as the club put forth their best effort since the opening-night drubbing of the Lethbridge Hurricanes but ran head long into the heroics of Snider. “With everyone sick and some guys out there was a chance for some guys to step up, I thought we played pretty well,” said Ice forward Kevin King, who finished the weekend with a couple of assists. “It was a good builder to take into the road trip. (Snider) was frustrating us tonight but you cant do anything about that. We just have to stay positive on the bench and in the room.”

That positive energy, and the finish around the net the club’s been searching for since the aforementioned Game 1, paid off 24 hours later in Medicine Hat. Kootenay traded blows with the Tigers in the goal department, taking an early 1-0 lead on Ryan Molle’s first of the season, and then surrendering two goals before Dustin Sylvester tied it late in the first period. Kootenay would chase the Tigers once again in the second as Emerson Etem - this season’s early Ice-killer as the American rookie had notched four goals on the season to that point, all against the Ice - twice paced the Tigers to one-goal leads before goals by Joe Antilla and a quick reply 24 seconds after the Tigers took the lead once again in the third period by import D Petr Senkerik, with his second of the year, took the two clubs to overtime.

Tiger forward Zdenek Okal took a late third period penalty that carried over into the overtime. D Brayden McNabb skated in from the point on the 4-on-3 and feed a cross-ice pass to Sylvester, who one-timed the game-winner past Tiger goaltender Tyler Bunz. The goal capped off a two-goal, one assist performance that got the Ice captain second star honours, ironically enough, behind Okal who finished with two helpers, the first star and the goat horns for the late penalty.

After a goal-starved week Ice head coach Mark Holick got what he asked for Friday night, goals. “We need to score goals, that’s what more I could ask for,” he said after Friday’s game. “I’m not sure we have a 50-goal guy in our room. We have a guy that can get close but for us to score goals, a lot of things have to go right.”

Quick Hits - Holick juggled some early-season line combinations Friday that paid-off Saturday, the most obvious being the trio of Dustin Sylvester with Max Reinhart and Dominik Pacovsky, which seemed to kick-start Sylvester’s point production which now stands at 3 goals and 4 assists in six games. Kevin King and Matt Fraser, Sylvester’s former linemates, were centred by Steele Boomer… After Prince Albert Tuesday night the road trip continues for the Ice as they’re in Saskatoon Wednesday night - a game televised on Shaw TV - and then Brandon on Friday; Moose Jaw on Sunday and Swift Current on Thanksgiving Monday… Both Christian Magnus (broken finger) and Drew Czerwonka (leg laceration) are still 3-4 weeks away from returning… To get down to the WHL-mandated three 20-year-olds the Prince Albert Raiders waived D Patrick Kozyra over the weekend. G Garret Zemlak, LW Craig McCallum and LW Dustin Cameron are the club’s overage players. Brandon (4), Swift Current (4 - with injury) and Medicine Hat (5) are the Eastern Conference clubs still over the limit. The league deadline for 20-year-olds is October 15.