A pair of good efforts in front of a hometown crowd didn’t lead to wins for the Creston Valley Thunder Cats but the players did get high praise from their coach.
“I thought in both games we played well enough to win,” Nick Redding said on Monday. “In both games we outshot and outplayed the opposition. I’m very proud of these guys and how far they have come this year. Hoping to finish strong with a good week of practice and put everything we have into our last two games.”
On Friday night the Thunder Cats played the division-leading Kimberley Dynamiters even for two periods before giving up two goals in the final frame to lose a 4-2 nail biter.
Carson Small opened the game’s scoring with assists from Trail Thompson and Aiden Wong, but Ryan Bennett returned the favour before the first period was over.
After Ryan Skitt put the Dynamiters into a 2-1 second period lead Andrew Clark (Austin Canete and Small) drew Creston into a tie.
Spencer Kennedy and Brock Palmer put pucks by goaltender Eric Samyn in the final 20 minutes. Samyn stopped 25 of the 29 shots he faced, but was outdueled by Brett Anderson, who turned aside 29 of Creston’s 31 shots.
Thompson earned Home Star honours.
On Sunday night a stellar effort in goal by the Grand Forks Border Bruins’ Ross King did the Thunder Cats in. King allowed only one goal as he stopped 35 shots to earn the win.
After Creston gave up goals to Keaghan Holub and Nathan Cohen-Wallis, Canete drew the Thunder Cats within one with a power play marker from Wong and Thompson.
Neither team managed to score in the middle period and an unassisted goal by Rilee Poffenroth sealed a 3-1 win for the visitors.
Connor Scammell was named the Home Star. Sam Burford started in goal for Creston and stopped 26 of 29 Border Bruins shots.
The Thunder Cats wrap up seasonal play with another two home games this weekend. They host the Dynamiters again on Friday night, then finish the season with a Saturday night game against the Beaver Valley Nitehawks.