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Creston Valley Thunder Cats beat Kelowna, Grand Forks on weekend

The Creston Valley Thunder Cats bounced back from a loss a week earlier with two wins on the weekend...
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Creston Valley Thunder Cat Tyler Fyfe (right) heads past a Kelowna Chiefs player while chasing the puck in Friday’s game.

The Creston Valley Thunder Cats bounced back from a loss a week earlier with two wins on the weekend over the Kelowna Chiefs and Grand Forks Border Bruins.

The wins helped the Thunder Cats remain in fourth place, with nine points, in the Eddie Mountain Division of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL), ahead of the Columbia Valley Rockies, but behind the Fernie Ghostriders, Kimberley Dynamiters and Golden Rockets, with 17, 16 and 15 points, respectively.

“It was certainly an offence-first kind of night,” head coach Dubois said of Friday’s 5-4 win over the Chiefs. “We took the lead a few times and gave it back, and ultimately took control in the third period.”

Scoring started with two Thunder Cats goals in the first period, by Nicolas Kovacik and Connor Kidd (power play) in the first five minutes. The Chiefs tied the score in the last half of the period.

Thunder Cat McConnell Kimmett responded with a goal in the first minute of the second period, and Ethan Rusnack — who played for the Thunder Cats from 2012-2014 — tying the score with 8:48 remaining.

Lien Miller-Jeannotte and Dalton Dubetz (power play) scored for the Thunder Cats early in the third period, before a Kelowna goal narrowed the Thunder Cats’ lead to 5-4. A sixth goal scored by the Thunder Cats was disallowed, but the Creston team was able to kill two minutes without letting the Chiefs tie the score.

The game was more than just a simple win — it was the first home win of the season, and Carson Cartwright and Kidd, the latter of which earned three assists in addition to his goal, were key to the win, as was the power-play crew breaking “out of a bit of a slump” with a different setup.

“That was the first game we tried to execute that,” said Dubois. “We were happy with the results there.”

On Saturday, the Thunder Cats hit the road to visit the Grand Forks Border Bruins, resulting in a 3-1 victory. It was the Thunder Cats’ best full 60-minute effort so far this season, said Dubois.

The Thunder Cats had a more solid defence than they did against Kelowna, he added, and played more in the Grand Forks defensive zone than in their own, making 55 shots as opposed to the Border Bruins’ 25.

As with the previous game, the Thunder Cats scored first, with Tyler Fyfe’s goal coming nearly 19 minutes into the first period. The Border Bruins tied the score about 30 seconds later.

In the second period, Logan Wullum scored the game-winner with 4:30 remaining, and Cartwright scored an empty-netter with five seconds left in the third.

The game marked Wullum and Fyfe’s first KIJHL goals, and Whitecourt, Alta., native Mitchell Martel’s first game in goal.

“That was a good debut for him, as well,” said Dubois.

Coming up, the Thunder Cats play two away games, visiting the Kimberley Dynamiters on Saturday and the Columbia Valley Rockies on Oct. 21.

The Thunder Cats lost their season-opener in Kimberley; they had the lead in the third period, but a couple of individual mistakes led to Dynamiters goals.

“I know we can play with them, but it’s a case of having to play a fairly mistake-free game on their big ice,” said Dubois.

And Tuesday’s game will be their first against the division-trailing Columbia Valley Rockies, but the team can’t take that team’s weak showing for granted.

“Every time you play a team in your division, it’s a chance to feel each other out,” he said.