Jonathan Schwarcz
Castlegar News
The Castlegar Rebels are tied in first place with the Beaver Valley Nitehawks in the Neil Murdoch Division of the KIJHL.
With last week’s three games all winners for Castlegar, this weekend’s games in Spokane on Friday, and at the Castlegar Complex with the Summerland Steam should be exciting.
September 29th at the complex was a slam dunk for the Rebels as they tormented the Spokane Braves 5-1.
With the Rebels placing 44 shots on the Spokane goalie the game was dominated by the Rebels. Still the Border Bruins had 25 shots on net; keeping Rebels goalie Logan Sawka alert and ready.
Scoring opened with Tayden Woods assisted by Daniel Petten only a minute into the game.
The Rebels were ahead by two by the first intermission. The Border Bruins only goal was halfway through the second period, but by this time the Rebels were already ahead by three goals.
Ed Lindsey had scored earlier at 17:02 on the clock, assisted by Darren Medeiros and Chris Breese.
This no nonsense line tacked up another goal early in the third period giving Ed Lindsey two goals for the night and Darren Medeiros a hat trick of assists.
The final goal for the Rebels came with eight minutes left in the match with a sinker by Chance Szott that bedevilled the Grand Forks goalie once more. Kudos should be given to the quick on his feet Border Bruins net keeper Nikki Maclurzynski , without whom the score for the Rebels may have been higher.
For his efforts Nikki Maclurzynski was awarded the night’s Away Team Star, while Chris Breese was the First Star for the Castlegar Rebels. Chris Breese had the second goal in the first period for the Rebels and assisted in two more. Darren Medeiros was Breese’s line-mate for all of Breese’s points.
The Rebels veterans, are showing that their learned experience combined with the eager enthusiasm of the whole team is a winning combination.
Lindsey remarked on his two goals after the game.
“The boys came together. The team is really finding me out there. The personal points are really great but the two points for the team is what really matters.”
Lindsey is playing his third year with the Rebels. He started at the age of sixteen.
“It is a honour to play for my hometown. See the people in the stands. I used to be one of those kids. It is a pretty cool experience,” he said. “We know we can contend with any team in this league, especially when we play our hardest.”
“Good for the most part. Overall there are things we have to work on, thing we have to improve,” said Rebels assistant coach, Keegan Little, who is back for his second season behind head coach Jesse Dorrans.
“At the end of the day we got the two points.”
On Friday, Oct. 2 the Rebels earned two more points smashing the Princeton Posse 6-0 outshooting them 36-19.
The following day was another two points in a closer calling with a win over the North Okanagan Knights 2-1.
The next home game for the Castlegar Rebels is this Saturday Oct.10 against the Summerland Steam. Puck drops at 7 p.m. at the Castlegar Complex.