Ice-Chiefs gamer....

For the Daily Townsman Monday...

Kootenay finds scoring touch; doubles Chiefs

by Jeff Bromley

Headed into the 2010-11 season the defensively loaded Kootenay Ice heard the early critiques; scoring could be a concern. Friday night against the Spokane Chiefs the Ice answered those critics with a 6-3 doubling of the visitors. Forward Kevin King, 20, scored two goals including a short-handed marker that tied the game less than a minute into the second period, and added an assist to lead the Ice to their second win of the season. “We didn’t want to get into a game of river hockey,” said King, who sat out Wednesday’s 4-2 loss to Red Deer as the extra 20-year-old. “But it’s early in the season and we’re still working on things but it’ll come around. Guys are stepping and putting up numbers where maybe they weren’t expected to but there are a lot of guys on this team that can put the puck in the net.”

The run-and-gun Chiefs opened the scoring Friday 1:39 into the game when Mitch Holmberg was the beneficiary of an Elgin Pearce pass straight up the middle in the defensive zone in which Holmberg was grateful and returned the favour by dekeing Todd Mathews to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead. The Chiefs almost made it 2-0 when Mathews did the same thing, this time sending a clearing attempt up the boards that Chief Captain Tyler Johnson intercepted and sent to the net, only a desperation pad save by Mathews kept the deficit at one. The home side got on the board just over a minute later when James Martin’s point-shot came off the end boards to where Max Reinhart was parked. The 18-year-old then banked his third of the season off Chief goaltender James Reid’s leg to tie the game at one. The ice-cold Kootenay power play, with quarterback Brayden McNabb back from the NHL at the point almost managed to break the goose-egg of 0-15 through the club’s first three games but when Martin’s point-shot finally found the back of the net to make it 2-1 at the 10:50 mark, Steve Kuhn had already left the box. Kootenay would get themselves into penalty trouble after that and it cost them when Kuhn returned the favour three minutes later with King off for cross-checking by burying his first of the season past Mathews to tie it. The Chiefs took a 3-2 lead, this time with D Hayden Rintoul in the bin, on a wicked Tyler Johnson slapshot that sent the visitors into the break with the lead and first-year head coach Kris Knoblauch into the break in a foul mood over his club’s penchant for penalties. “I can’t repeat that,” said the normally reserved Knoblauch on what he said to his troops during the break. “They seemed to get the message. After that the shots were blocked, we stayed out of the box and limited our turnovers.”

It was Max Reinhart, while killing another penalty to start the second, who streaked into the Chief zone one-on-one, and waited until he found King in the slot who potted his second of the season to tie the game and turn the tide. The Ice seemed to find their legs after the goal and revved up the firewagon hockey for the rest of the night. Brock Montgomery stuffed his first of the season past Reid, this time off a Chief turnover at 12:11 to give the home side a 4-2 lead after two periods. In the third Matt Fraser scored on a 120-foot breakaway feed from Pearce to make it 5-2 at the 1:40-mark. Six minutes later King notched his second of the night on a pretty three-way passing play that sealed the win for the Ice.

The back-and-forth action, with less attention to defensive detail normally served up, delighted the small gathering of 2454 at the Rec Plex. “It had a lot to do with the way Spokane played,” said Knoblauch of Kootenay’s run and gun style Friday. “I like it and it’s entertaining but what we have right now is a strong, fast team but I don’t know if I’d classify us as a skilled team. Tonight we had way too many turnovers and it cost us. Luckily it didn’t cost us the game.”

For the Chiefs the offensive display wasn’t as entertaining and they could’ve used number one d-man Jared Cowen, who was returned from the NHL’s Ottawa Senators Saturday. “We have some young players back there and we got into some tough situations,” offered Chiefs assistant coach Jon Klemm, a Cranbrook product. “Especially giving up that many breakaways. We didn’t deal with adversity really well after we gave up that short-handed goal in the second right off the hop but we’re a young club and we want to play to our strengths. We didn’t do that after that goal.”

Quick Hits – Todd Mathews stopped 24 of 27 shots for the Ice while James Reid turned aside 13 of 19… Pearce atoned for his earlier gaffe with three assists and arguably his best game in an Ice uniform... Both James Martin and Max Reinhart finished the game with a goal and an assist... The game saw the return of former Ice d-man Tyler Vanscourt, who was released at the beginning of last season, and resurfaced with the Chiefs after a season in the NAHL in the U.S. Vanscourt didn’t endear himself to any of his former teammates when he dragged his knee on Ice forward Matt Fraser late in the third. After serving the two minutes he paid for it in a late game tussle with the Ice forward… The Prince George Cougars make their first appearance at the Rec Plex in two seasons Wednesday. Gametime is 7PM