Kyle Bergh’s first goal as a Castlegar Rebel was the one that gave the team their first lead against the Grand Forks Border Bruins on Friday night.
It was well into the second period before the former Creston Valley Thunder Cat gave the Rebels their first lead of the night. The goal put the score at 5-4, and was far from Bergh’s only victory of the evening. By the end, the new forward had three points and earned star player for the game. The Rebels also counted a victory, beating the Bruins 8-4.
Before playing his first game with the Rebels on Friday, Bergh had only played 20 games this season, after an ankle injury kept him out.
“I sprained it in a game against Golden and came back a bit too early and tweaked it again,” he explained.
Despite being out with an injury, the 19-year-old scored eight goals and had 10 assists as a Thunder Cat, with 0.9 points per game. Even though it’s a small sample size, Bergh is on a 1.5 points per game pace as a Rebel.
Asked how he liked playing with the Rebels for the first time, Bergh said, “It was really good; I enjoyed it. There are some good skill guys and they have that balance with guys that’ll get to the dirty areas, and just all around I think they do the right things here.”
As for what the Rebels still need to work on this season, both Bergh and coach Bill Rotheisler said the team needs to play a full game.
“It took us a while to get going, but that’s something we’re continuing to work on is the constant quest for a 60-minute game,” said Rotheisler.
The first period of Friday night’s game ended with a tie of 3-3, with the Rebels answering every goal the Bruins scored, but failing to gain a lead. For the first half of the second period it looked like it would be more of the same, after the Rebels answered a fourth goal from Grand Forks, but after Bergh put his team into the lead, the Rebels denied the Bruins any further goals and coasted to victory with a four-goal margin.
Watching Friday night’s game, another area that seemed to need improvement was the Rebels’ power plays, but Rotheisler explained it was the flu that was hampering his team’s performance.
“We have three of our regulars on the power play that are out right now with the flue,” he said. “That wasn’t a good picture of what our power play usually is.”
The Rebels also played the Fernie Ghostriders on Saturday night, but were defeated 5-1.