With only one game to play in almost two weeks, the Creston Valley Thunder Cats made the best of it at home on Friday night, swamping the Spokane Braves 7-0.
“It was a good game to be a part of,” head coach Brad Tobin said on Sunday. “Myself and the coaching staff were impressed that we played a full 60 minutes of Thunder Cat hockey — it was our best game of the season in terms of effort and execution level. We found a groove where we could keep rolling all four lines and three defense pairings.”
Justen James (Ronnie Wilkie and Jack McArdle) opened the scoring in the first period, and Aiden Wong (Liam Plunkett and Mitchell Wolfe) gave the T-Cats a 2-0 lead going into the first intermission.
Brodie Ryan (Conor Monoghan and Tyler Witzke) and Bryce Sturm (Wong and Kason Furukawa) put the home team ahead by four after 40 minutes.
The Thunder Cats continued to press in the third period, salting away the win with goals by Carson Small (James and Dylan Rantucci), Sturm (Small and Wong) and Dawson McGuire (James and Small).
Creston outshot the Braves 40-23 and Jaysen MacLean earned the shutout. Bryce Sturm was named the Home Star of the game.
“All our players looked good in this one, but a couple of notables stood out. The line of James, Wilkie and Berg controlled the play with their speed and skill creating offensive opportunities on most shifts. It was good to see Bryce Sturm get his first two goals of the season as well,” Tobin said.
“Now our focus shifts to two teams next weekend that’ll be looking to have better outings against us and we need to continue our improvements this week in practice to keep it going.”
The Thunder Cats return to action on Friday when they play host to the Grand Forks Border Bruins, who currently sit in a tie with Nelson for the Neil Murdoch Division lead.
On Tuesday the team travels to Invermere to take on the Columbia Valley Rockies. Columbia Valley has 10 points after playing 12 games to put them a point behind Creston, which has two games in hand. Kimberley Dynamiters continue to lead the Eddie Mountain division with 18 points.