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Creston Valley Thunder Cats winning streak reaches six

Victories over Golden, Revelstoke and Sicamous allowed the Creston Valley Thunder Cats to extend their winning streak...
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Victories over the Golden Rockets, Revelstoke Grizzlies and Sicamous Eagles allowed the Creston Valley Thunder Cats to extend their winning streak to six, and pushing them farther into first place in their Kootenay International Junior Hockey League Division.

They visited the Golden Rockets — at the bottom of the Eddie Mountain Division with 14 points, 20 behind the Thunder Cats — at the beginning of a three-game road trip on Nov. 21, coming away with a 2-1 win.

“We went in and sort of did the minimum we had to do to get the two points and carry on,” said head coach Josh Hepdtich, who gave goalie Brock Lefevbre credit for making some key saves. “It was probably the most boring game all year.”

Neither team scored in the first period, but Colby Livingstone and Jesse Collins (power play) scored for the Thunder Cats in the second period. The Rockets scored the only goal of the third period at 18:24.

On Friday, the Thunder Cats visited Revelstoke, where they made the score 6-2 by the end of the first period.

“We definitely came out with lots of jump,” said Hepditch. “It was one of those games where we just exploded right out of the gate and really didn’t let off.”

Tyler Podgorenko scored the Thunder Cats first goal at 19:04, followed by a shorthanded Grizzlies goal at 15:59. Trevor Hanna scored on a power play before the second and final Grizzlies goal was scored on a power play at 11:02. Logan Styler, Nichols Thompson, Connor Kidd and Brandon Formosa (power play) each added a goal by the end of the period.

The Thunder Cats continued to dominate in the second period, with Hanna and Marshall Sidwell scoring at 15:08 and 14:31, respectively, and Hanna scoring on a power play for a hat trick with one second remaining.

Colton St. John and Marcel Fuchs added the Thunder Cats’ 10th and 11th goals in the third period.

“They (Revelstoke) have a pretty decent team, but it showed our firepower,” said Hepditch. “We could easily roll four lines and tell everybody was contributing to it.”

The Thunder Cats visited Sicamous on Saturday, where a game that, on paper, looked similar to Thursday’s — two Thunder Cats goals in the second, one from the opponent in the third — was much different.

“It was a pretty tightly played game,” said Hepditch. “We had to rely on our defensive game. We couldn’t find the back of the net.”

Collins and Styler scored in mid-second period, but in the third, the Thunder Cats ran into penalty trouble, allowing the Eagles to score a single goal.

It was a much narrower margin than the Thunder Cats’ typical high-scoring games this season, which was a good test.

“It’s a good confidence builder to know you can lock down those tight games,” said Hepditch.

After five straight road games, the Thunder Cats will be home this weekend to host the Kimberley Dynamiters on Friday and Golden Rockets on Saturday. The Thunder Cats beat the Dynamiters 5-2 in each of three games this month.

“We’re definitely looking forward to anther big game with them,” he said. “It will be interesting. There’s usually not much room for improvement in two weeks.”

Saturday will mark Golden’s first visit this season, after the Thunder Cats managed two wins out of three games in Golden.

“It will be nice to be able to get them on our ice and see how they react to the long drive,” said Hepditch.