The Kootenay Ice won their seventh straight game the hard way with a 5-4 over the Brandon Wheat Kings in a shoot-out Friday night.
The Wheaties went up 3-0 in the first period when rookie Brett Teskey surrendered three goals on six shots by Brenden Walker, Brody Melnychuk and Mark Stone. Kootenay outshot the Wheat Kings 12-6 in the first.
Coach Knoblauch resisted the temptation to pull the rookie and held his defensively lacking squad responsible to redeem themselves in the second and they answered the call, pouring 21 shots on Wheat King goaltender Liam Liston and pulling within one on goals by Brayden McNabb, with his first of the season, and Joe Leach with his third.
In the third Kootenay kept the pressure on and took a 4-3 lead on markers by Christian Magnus and Drew Czerwonka. The Wheat Kings tied it on a goal by Hampus Gustafsson to send to OT and a shootout where the Ice scored all three of their goals to win it.
Czerwonka, Leach and Magnus all finished the game with a goal and an assist with Magnus, who had at least three glorious chances Friday night, a point off his season total last season at four goals and five assists.
The club resembles something of a MASH unit after D James Martin underwent surgery on his nose to fix up some loose cartilage and didn't dress. He's day-to-day. D John Neibrandt went down in the second after a spirited scrap with Mike Ferland and taking a good shot to the eye that closed it, forcing him out of the game. D Hayden Rintoul is week-to-week with a bruised collarbone while forward Brendan Hurley is still out another five weeks with a hand injury. Forward Joe Antilla drew the short stick and saw about six shifts of duty on the blueline the rest of the game. Knoblauch mentioned that the club would likely call up one of D Mike Simpson, 16, D Jeff Hubic, 16, or 15-year-old Tanner Faith, if possible.
Lots of buzz in the building with 2478 coming out. Thought the crowd might be bigger given the streak. Kootenay improves to 11-3-0-1, good for 23 points, first in the Eastern Conference and tied for first overall in the WHL with the Portland Winterhawks.
Chilliwack is here Tuesday.
7 comments:
Last night's game was awesome. I just don't know what it will take for this town to get out and support this team. All I can say is you people who aren't coming out to the games have no idea what you are missing. GO ICE GO!! Keep up the good work. Next home game is Tuesday night. How about we get out and show a little support.
maybe the fact no one cares or comes out to the games in a "hockey town" is the management and marketing....
Further to the Anonymous Post, lots of talk around town about the lack of effort in selling the product and managements attitude that " I am here, you must come ". Numerous business just fed up with buying extra tickets with their own hard cash and not receiving even a thank you from the parties to be. As is posted earlier, I am just going to go to the games, support the young men and not worry about management. Hey, maybe we can consider management as being a non - resident owner. That works doesn't it??
That works for me. I don't miss a single game and never will. I've heard many, many comments about lack of marketing, people don't like the owner, blah, blah, blah. What it boils down to is, do we want this team here or do we not. Should these young men pay because of the 'lack of marketing', etc. or do they deserve our support? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out, does it?
Lets prove our mettle here and support the Ice - How about every season ticket holder taking a friend every second game or so. We then have a sell out, do we not? Surely, with the price of a season ticket, we could fork up a few more bucks and buy the occasional extra ticket. Surely, we all have one friend, do we not? Any other ideas out there??? Lets quit bitching, get off our asses, and do something positive.
I have enjoyed watching the Ice for over ten years now. this is our first year not getting season tickets. Just couldn't find the money this year. now to go to a game it is over 50.00. I have alot of things i can do with that money when i have it. The hockey rocks but there are alot of us that just can't throw out 50.00 to go to a game.
to Just Broke: I understand the cost of a hockey ticket is pretty high for some people. I think I mentioned in another post that the Kootenay ICE offer a power payment plan for season tickets. Maybe next season you can look into that.
To Love the Ice: I think that's a great idea. Now, how do we get the word out to the other season ticket holders to bring a friend?
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