Creston Valley Thunder Cats are heating up as the playoffs approach, and stretched their division lead to five points with a pair of wins against Eddie Mountain Division rivals.
The successful weekend started on the road in Fernie Friday night, where a 2-goal first period put the Cats in a lead they would not give up. After the Ghostriders’ Evan Traverse put the home team up by a goal, Ronnie Wilkie (Julian Benner and Thomas Cankovic) tied it with a power play effort and newcomer Michael Spenrath added an unassisted marker.
Paxton Malone (Spenrath and Grant Iles) scored the only goal in the middle frame.
Cole Arcuri (Severson) stretched Creston’s lead to three early in the third period. Brendan Nemes and Julian Benner (Cankovic and Austin Anselmo) traded goals to close the game out.
Brock Lefebvre backstopped the win, allowing only a pair of goals while turning aside 28 shots. Creston fired 35 shots at Brendan Henderson.
Not surprisingly, Saturday night’s game was much closer, as the Kimberley Dynamiters have stayed close to Creston in the standings for most of the season.
Anselmo gave Creston a short-lived lead early in the game, with assists going to Kalenuik and Lien-Miller Jeannotte. Nolan Kurylo and Chase Miller put Kimberley ahead for about two minutes before Benner (Cankovic and Aiden Wong) tied the game.
Spenrath (Sebastian Kilcommons and Liam Plunett) and Anselmo (Kilcommons and Jonathan Lee) restored the Creston lead, but goals by Kuriyo and Nicholas Ketola put the game into a 4-4 tie after two periods.
Arcuri (Iles and Anselmo) and Kuryio, with his hat-trick goal, again resulted in a tie, but Wong scored the ultimate winner from James with 3:58 remaining.
Patrick Osterman played the first 40 minutes, giving up 4 goals on only 12 shots. Lefebvre played the final frame, stopping 18 of 19 shots.
With eight games remaining in the 2016-17 regular season, Creston now sits third overall in the KIJHL race, with 60 points. Osoyoos Storm sit in second, with 61 points and the Beaver Valley Nitehawks continue to be head of the league with 67 points.
Malone, who led the league in scoring when he was acquired in December, has slipped into third place overall, with 55 points. Plunkett, with 46 points, and Cankovic, who has 43, sit in 15th and 20th place respectively.
In the two weeks since he joined the club from the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, defenseman Anselmo has fit right in, scoring three times and adding four assists in only four games.
Spenrath notched two goals and a help in his first two games as a Thunder Cat. The Calgary-born player most recently suited up in Alberta for the Whitecourt Wolverines.
The Thunder Cats resume play on Friday night when they host the Golden Rockets. Saturday the team travels to Kimberley, where another win would help solidify Creston’s lead on the Dynamiters.Creston coach Jeff Dubois was unavailable for comment at press time.