It was a week of ups and downs for the Castlegar Rebels who faced off against the Grand Forks Border Bruins on Friday and played the Beaver Valley Nighthawks for the first time in the regular season on Saturday.
Things started out well for the Rebels on Friday, as first Vince Bitonti then Brandon Costa scored power-play goals during the first period. The Bruins responded with a goal shortly after the Rebels’ second and tied things up the next period, scoring the only goal in the second after the Rebels’ Jacob Lindsey took a penalty for cross-checking.
In the third period, Chris Breese and Brady Daniels each scored a goal in the first half, allowing the Rebels to once again take the lead.
Then the Rebels took two penalties in the final two minutes and 23 seconds, putting them on the penalty kill for the remainder of the game. The Bruins managed one power-play goal with 1:36 left on the clock, but the Rebels managed to keep them from scoring again, ending the game 4-3 for the Rebels.
Asked what he thought after his first look at the Bruins this season, Rebels coach and general manager Bill Rotheisler said, “Exactly what I thought. I know they play hard and play good defensively and give us a completely different game than we’ve seen, so we knew they’d be more physical. We 100 per cent knew what to expect.”
Rotheisler said his team played well.
“They had to show a lot more adversity this game than their first three games and that’s something, building off of last year, we wanted to make sure that we were better at,” he said.
There were some controversial calls made during the game, with fans from both sides taking issue with the officials’ decisions.
“I thought that just like players, officials are people and they can be shook off their game as well. No fault on them. It happens,” said Rotheisler, when asked about the officiating. “Won’t the be the last time, won’t be the first time and that’s how she rolls.”
The call that riled Rebels’ fans toward the end of the game was a call against Bitonti for slew-footing.
Asked about it, Rotheilser didn’t agree with the call.
“Slew-footing is not what you saw — that’s my opinion — that’s not at all a slew foot,” he said.
The Rebels played an away game in Fruitvale on Saturday and things didn’t work out as well for them.
The Nitehawks defeated them 3-1, with the only Rebels goal scored by Chris Breese in the last five minutes of the third, while on a penalty kill.
“We certainly didn’t play our best,” said Parker Hickey, assistant general manager for the Rebels. “Our goaltending was OK — Kirk Doyle was good in net — but other than that we just didn’t play our game and they were a better team than us.”
Leading up to the team’s next away game against the Kimberley Dynamiters on Friday, Hickey said it will be a hard week of practice for the Rebels.
“Kimberley will be a big test; they’re first in their division,” he said.
After that, the team heads to Fernie for a game on Saturday.
The team’s next home game isn’t until Saturday, Oct. 7 when they again face the Fernie Ghostriders.