Castlegar special teams make Leafs pay during 6-3 KIJHL victory Saturday night in Nelson
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily Sports
The Nelson Leafs rolled the dice Saturday night against the Castlegar Rebels, believing the Heritage City squad could play undisciplined hockey and still win.
However, the defending Kootenay Conference Champs didn’t get to the KIJHL final last season by fluke.
The Rebels looked to be in mid-season form, making the Leafs pay for their mistakes by scoring four times on the power play en route to a 6-3 Kootenay International Junior Hockey League drubbing of Nelson at the NDCC Arena.
The win by the Sunflower City squad avenged a 3-0 loss Friday in Castlegar.
“I thought we controlled the play for a good portion of the game but penalties just killed us really in the (third period),” said Leaf defenceman Tyler Parfeniuk, wearing the captain’s “C” for the game.
“I thought we were playing well except for a 10-minute span in the third period.”
The Kelowna native was correct in his assessment of the game.
The Leafs displayed flashes of brilliance before a somewhat controversial goal eight minutes into the third period by Aaron Brewer appeared to turn the tide in the favour of the Rebels.
Brewer sped into the Leaf end and dribbled a shot past Leaf goalie Patrick Defoe.
The Leafs protested the net was already dislodged from the goal line before players colliding with Defoe completely removed the goal.
However, two consecutive power play goals by Tyler Robinson and Erik Alden, the latter coming less than two minutes after Brewer’s game winner, was more than enough to erase any controversy and give Castlegar its first win of the season.
“I’m obviously happy . . . happy with the win,” said Rebel head coach Steve Junker. “It’s nice to get that first one out of the way.”
“We took a step in the right direction tonight,” Junker added. “I don’t think we had a very good start . . . it was pretty sloppy on both sides. But we were able to find a way to win and obviously finding the back of the net helps with confidence. Hopefully we can build off of that.”
Nelson held leads of 1-0 thanks to a shorthanded marker by Patrick Martens and 3-2-advantage after two second period goals by James Sorriey and Max Mois erased a 2-1 Castlegar lead.
But Anthony Delong tied the game at 3-3 with a marker late in the middle frame on a delayed penalty.
And the Rebels made the Leafs pay for their undisciplined ways with three goals in the third.
Delong and Alden each finished the game with two goals and an assist for three points.
Tyler Robinson scored the other Castlegar marker.
Alex Ross was solid in goal, especially in the second period when Nelson peppered the Montrose native with 14 shots. Ross finished the game stopping 24 of 27 pucks.
Defoe, who started training camp in Castlegar, took the loss.
Both coaches are eager to get some practice time after a month of finding the right players to fill out the respective rosters.
The Leafs next game is Friday when the Green and White host Kelowna Chiefs while the Rebels travel to Grand Forks to meet the Border Bruins.
ICE CHIPS: Prior to the start of Saturday’s game the Leafs paid tribute to four people who played major roles in Nelson hockey. Two devoted fans, Nina Arabia and Harold Epp, died during the off season as well as former senior Leaf goalie Gerry Koehle and longtime scorekeeper Jim Kienholz. The bearded scorekeeper was killed in a plane crash over the summer. . . .Leaf defenceman Walker Sidoni tried to fire up his teammates after going toe-to-toe with Anthony Delong in a third-period tilt. Sidoni, however, was whistled for the extra two-minutes for instigating allowing the Rebels to score its fifth goal of the game on the power play. . . .Nelson lost its second defenceman of the night minutes later when Riley Henderson was hit with a checking-from-behind penalty, which carries an automatic game misconduct.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
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