Ice lose to Blades

Kootenay ends long road trip with a loss to Blades

by Jeff Bromley

Wrapping up the longest stretch of games away from the Cranbrook Rec Plex this season Kootenay ran out of gas before they got home, at least on the ice.

Playing their fourth game in five nights in Saskatoon Sunday night the Ice dropped a 4-2 decision to their Eastern Conference rivals and in the process fell four points behind the Blades for the Eastern Conference lead. Kootenay got goals from rookie forward Eric Benoit, 17, who returned to the club following a knee injury to get his second marker of the season, and Max Reinhart with his 17th on the year in a losing cause. “It wasn’t bad,” was Ice head coach Kris Knoblauch's assessment of the effort. “But with the team we have this year our expectations are more than that.”

Doing his best to pick up the slack after Ice leading-scorer Kevin King missed all
three weekend games with an elbow infection, Reinhart started the trip off with a bang with a club-tying four-goal outburst Wednesday in a 5-0 blowout of the Prince Albert Raiders. The West Vancouver product added to that total with a goal Saturday in a 3-2 shootout win in Brandon to give him 17 on the season that has erased a slow start for the Calgary Flame draft pick. “We’re we missing some key guys and a couple of our older guys were banged up and our younger guys stepped up. I was really happy with the efforts of the players. Max is one of our top scorers and he's starting to find the back of the net on a regular basis.”

The disappointing loss to the Blades notwithstanding Knoblauch was hard-pressed to find a flaw in his club’s game over the road trip. His charges started in Red Deer November and then trekked through the U.S. Division for another four contests before heading out on the four-game Prairie trip last week. Finishing the ten game span at 5-4-1 wasn’t something to write home about but the first-year head coach is happy to get through in relatively one piece. And despite having to pull goaltender Nathan Lieuwen Friday in Moose Jaw in a 6-4 loss Knoblauch came right back with the 19-year-old in Brandon and Saskatoon and wasn’t hanging any of the losses on his goaltender. “Against Moose Jaw it wasn’t his best period but he didn’t have a lot of help and he responded the next night,” said Knoblauch. “And he’s done that all season long. He was great against Brandon and in Saskatoon he kept it close and we had some opportunities to tie it up in the third period and that all starts with him.”

Quick Hits – D Brayden McNabb left the club after Friday’s loss in Moose Jaw to try-out for Canada’s World Junior team in Toronto… Max Reinhart tied a club record for four goals in a game against the Raiders that is held by seven other players - Michael Stickland, Steve DaSilva, Ryan Russell, Dale Mahovsky, Mike Comrie, Scott Burt and Jay Henderson… The four goal performance was followed by Elgin Pearce’s first-ever WHL hat-trick against Moose Jaw. The three goals gives the Port Coquitlam product six on the season… LW Kevin King is day-to-day with an elbow infection but is expected to play Wednesday while D Hayden Rintoul is out until after Christmas with a tear in his MCL... The Calgary Hitmen are at the Rec Plex Wednesday.