Chris Stedile
Castlegar News
In a close contest, the Castlegar Rebels managed to defeat the Nelson Leafs 5-4 on Friday night.
The two teams have been butting heads all season and Friday’s game was no different, as three periods weren’t enough to settle the matter.
The opening of Friday’s game was won by Nelson as they put the puck away twice before the ten minute mark.
Rayce Miller and Michael Crawford scored the goals, respectively.
Despite the early lead, those would be the only goals for the Leafs for quite some time.
Castlegar Forward, Jeremy McNeil came back to score a few minutes later bringing the contest to 2-1.
Entering the second period, the league’s top scorer, Bryan Lubin, slammed home a goal in less than a minute.
Shortly after, Mike Bhatoa came through, riding on the team’s momentum with 17:01 remaining in the second and pushed the Rebels ahead by one.
Despite a flurry of shots from both sides, the goalies managed to keep everything out of the net until the whistle blew and the period ended.
The third period began with yet another goal from the Rebels, scored by Darren Medeiros, giving them what seemed to be a comfortable lead.
It may have stayed that way, however two bad penalties led to two scores from Nelson’s Austin Lindsay and Michael Crawford and suddenly the game was tied.
It would stay that way for the remainder of the third, pushing the bout into overtime.
Castlegar only took four shots in the overtime period but that was enough as Rebels defenseman, Daniel Petten tucked the puck away with 4:20 remaining and sealed the deal, 5-4.
The Rebels and Leafs clashed again the following night, but this time Nelson came away with the win.
No overtime periods needed for this game as the Leafs took it 2-1 and pushed past Castlegar into first place for the division.