The Creston Valley Thunder Cats earned two points on the weekend, with overtime losses to the Summerland Steam and the Kelowna Chiefs on a road trip to the Okanagan.
The Steam began the scoring in Friday’s game, with a power-play goal at 8:44, followed by Thunder Cats goals by Trevor Hanna at 5:33 and Ethan Rusnack at 0:02.
Summerland tied the score 2-2 by the end of the second period, but the Thunder Cats fought back, with a goal by Brady Ward tying the score at 3-3 near the end of the third.
“Near the end of the game, we let up for a whole shift and they scored with 31 seconds left,” said head coach Josh Hepditch.
Thunder Cat Colby Livingstone managed a shorthanded goal with five seconds left, sending the game into overtime.
In overtime, Livingstone earned a game misconduct, leaving his team to successfully kill a penalty.
“Anytime that you can kill a penalty in overtime is huge, especially at this time of year,” Hepditch said. “We’re trying to build that for the later part of the year. That’s something we might have do in the playoffs, so doing it right now is a big thing.”
After the Thunder Cats missed their chance on a breakaway, the Steam scored with 14 seconds left.
The next night’s game followed a similar format, with the Thunder Cats going strong until the game was nearly over.
“We had a lapse in the last part of the third period,” said Hepditch. “We played a good 57 minutes and had a bad three minutes, and they scored three goals.”
Jesse Collins scored the games first two goals, with one at 0:35 in the first period and a power-play goal early in the second. Marcel Fuchs followed with a third goal for the Thunder Cats before Kelowna and Thunder Cats Angus Johnston scored, bringing the score to 4-1 at the end of the second period.
The Chiefs scored two more at the beginning of the third period, followed by the Thunder Cats’ fifth, by Johnston, before a Chiefs goal brought the score to 5-4 at 0:23.
“We put ourselves in a pretty good position to win,” said Hepditch, so a faceoff at the Chiefs’ end with seven seconds left should have guaranteed a Thunder Cats win, but the Chiefs scored five seconds later.
“We still have to know we have to play those last seven seconds,” said Hepditch. “It’s good for kids learn every second means something.”
A Chiefs goal two minutes into overtime clinched their victory.
This weekend, the Thunder Cats play their second and third of five divisional games in a row, a run started on Tuesday against the visiting Kimberley Dynamiters.
With 30 appoints, the Dynamiters currently hold second place in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League’s Eddie Mountain Division, four points behind the Fernie Ghostriders. The Golden Rockets, who visit Creston on Friday, are in third with 27 points, five ahead of the Thunder Cats. The Columbia Valley Rockies, whom the Thunder Cats will visit on Saturday, bring up the rear with 18 points, already 11 points ahead of their 2011-2012 season’s total.
“If we want to move up in the standings, we have to find a way to start wining divisional games,” said Hepditch. “They’re always good games and both teams are looking to win.”