SCOTT KOCH
CONTRIBUTOR
The Family Day weekend was chock full of hockey-related activities for the 16- to 20-year-old Heat.
The weekend started with the Heat rumbling through avalanche alley to the mountain mecca of Revelstoke. The top two teams in their division were facing each other for the second time in seven days.
The Grizzlies could be considered rude by Ms. Manners standards, as they helped themselves to the first four goals, before the Chase crew received a portion. In the first, the Mad Bears popped in two and they added two more in the second.
Then the hot Colton Nikiforuk flicked in a counter from Michael Fidanza and Zachary Fournier. The third put a scare in the Bears as Chase fired in two more, first Gavin Mattey from Evan Hughes and Darion Nordick, and then the red hot Nikiforuk, again from Jackson Marshall and Fidanza. However, Revelstoke was the only team to get dessert, scoring the last goal to leave the ice table with a 5-3 victory.
Saturday night, the 10th of February, in the confines of the Art Holding Memorial Arena filled with 350 fans, was a kettle full of different fish – and result.
The Sicamous Eagles were the guests and the Heat scored four in a row after learning bad manners in the Stoke.
In the first it was Pat Brady from Marshall and Kaden Black, followed by Fournier from Brayden Haskell and Jay Schweizer.
The second saw – guess who – Nikiforuk score from Brady and Fidanza on the man advantage, then Mattey from Black and Hughes. The Eagles caught the hungry Heat asleep at the table and scored a shorthanded counter.
Next up was history, as Kolten Moore went end-to-end on the power play from Fournier and Brady. It was the franchise record 200th point for the four-year veteran. The end result was a 5-1 home-ice win, backstopped by Conor Webb who denied 28 of 29 shots by Sicamous.
Head Coach Brad Fox and the players held a Hot Stove Social after the game and invited volunteers, parents and billet parents for a question-and-answer casual get together. Tall tales, jokes and laughs were exchanged to sum up the year to date.
On Sunday at the Adams Lake Band Conference Centre, the Annual Awards Banquet was held. The evening’s guest speaker was Dave Chyzowski from the WHL Kamloops Blazers.
There are two games left in the regular season for the Chase crew, a home date Friday the 16th versus the Kamloops Storm and a Saturday trip to 100 Mile House to face the Wranglers. The playoffs commence Friday, Feb. 23 and a schedule of the first-round series will be provided next week.