The Castlegar Rebels managed to rid themselves of the Leafs – eliminating their Nelson rivals from the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League playoffs at the Castlegar Community Complex on Thursday night.
The outcome was never in doubt as the hosts skated to a 3-1 first period lead and never looked back. Rebel Erik Alden, from Daylen Pearson and Anthony Delong opened the scoring before Colton Schell, assisted by Jonathon Petrash, tied it for the Leafs.Anthony Delong, from Riley Henderson and Stuart Walton and Kody Disher, from Diego Bartlett and Daylen Pearson, gave Castlegar enough goals for the win.The Rebels padded their bulge with the only marker of the second period.
This time it was Stuart Walton setting up Brenden Heinrich.The guests would get within two in the third stanza, but that was it.Andrew Walton went the distance in the Nelson nets, stopping 35 of 39 shots.Jordan Gluck minded the home crease, kicking out 23 of 25.The win gave the Rebels a 4-1 series win over Nelson. The Castlegar squad will now prepare for a tough test against the Beaver Valley Nitehawks. That series is next for the Rebels and will kick off March 6 in Fruitvale.