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Thunder Cats split a pair of home games on the weekend

A fast-skating Nelson Leafs team used their team speed to deal the Thunder Cats their first home loss on Saturday.
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The Creston Valley Thunder Cats were left with a 3-2 record and a hold in second place in the KIJHL Eddie Mountain Division.

A fast-skating Nelson Leafs team used their team speed to deal the Thunder Cats their first home loss on Saturday.

Nelson jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the game was half over on goals by Sawyer Hunt, Ethan Land and Jackson Zimmermann. The home team responded, but couldn’t hold the Leafs’ scoring down.

Captain Liam Plunkett (Ronnie Wilkie and Aiden Wong) and Wilkie (Plunkett and Wong) sandwiched goals around Jack Karran’s marker, bringing the score to 4-2 after two periods.

But Karran scored twice more in the third to round out his hat trick before Conor Monaghan (Twyler Witzky and Mitchell Wolfe) finished off the scoring.

“We started the game off with a weird goal against 11 seconds into the game. After that it took us a couple minutes to get settled into the game,” coach Brad Tobin said. “The Leafs have a veteran team that uses their speed really well, especially on the counter-attack. A couple of times we got caught flat-footed and weren’t expecting that speed coming back into our zone.”

Tobin paid a compliment to the line of Brody Ryan, Monaghan and Dawson McGuire, who “were creating chances all night with their speed and tenacity on the forecheck.”

The loss gives the Thunder Cats some specifics to work on, he said.

“We’ll be working heavily on the special teams this week at practice trying to find the right mix for both the power play and penalty kill,” Tobin said.

On Friday night’s home opener, three newcomers combined for the winning goal near the end of the first overtime period as the T-Cats fought to a hard-earned 4-3 victory over the Beaver Valley Nitehawks.

“The returning players from last year’s team,I think let everyone know what to expect coming into the home opener,” coach Brad Tobin said on Sunday. “We knew it’d be a tough test against the Nitehawks. We kept the intensity up throughout the game and were moving the puck with speed.”

Creston gave up the first goal to Aiden Jenner, but veteran Ronnie Wilkie tied the game 13 seconds later with assists from Aiden Wong and Liam Plunkett. Creston jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second period. Carson Small (Mitchell Wolfe and Liam Rycroft) and Plunket (Wilkie and Kason Furukawa) both scored before Aiden Browell narrowed the gap with a power play effort.

A second power play goal by Browell with 3:17 remaining in regulation time sent the game into overtime.

“Carson Small played a solid game on the wing, he was winning battles along the boards and was getting pucks to the net,” Tobin commented. “Conor Monaghan made his first KIJHL goal a big one, getting open in the right space to score the overtime winner.”

The Cats received a blow in the third period when Liam Rycroft was injured. Tobin said he isn’t expected back for the foreseeable future.

The Thunder Cats return to action on Friday night when they host the Columbia Valley Rockies. The team heads west on Saturday to take on the Nelson