Gerick’s Cycle and OK Tire bounced back from Thursday losses to regain a share of first place with wins on Sunday.
After falling to the Arlington 4-2 in Thursday’s game, Gericks regrouped and skated to a convincing 8-4 victory over the Big A on the weekend. Gericks forward Steve Walker exploded onto the TCHL score sheet with a five-point game, tallying three goals and adding two assists to lead the team to its second win of the season.
Gericks jumped out to a 4-0 first period lead on goals by Trevor Fennell, Craig Clare, and two from Walker, before Kevin Santori replied for Arlington with three minutes to play in the period. Arlington’s Al McMartin cut the lead in half five minutes into the second frame on a great individual effort, but Clare scored his second of three on the night at the 19 minute mark and set up Curtis Wabelin 60 seconds later to make it 6-2.
The ‘A’ counted two more before the period was out on goals from Joey Baker and Jeremy Robinson to draw within two, but Walker and Clare finished off their hat tricks in the third for the 8-3 win. Clare counted six points in the game, while the plucky Robinson had a three-point night for 2-2-0 Arlington, which currently sit one point back of Gericks and the Tire.
Meanwhile, OK Tire scored four unanswered goals in the second period to defeat Allstar 6-3. Allstar took a 3-2 lead into the second period on goals from Jarret Conway, Tristan Read, and Jason Proulx, but Joel Graf’s second goal of the game would tie it four minutes into the second, and Cam Ferguson’s goal off a pretty Evan MacKay pass a minute later proved the winner. The Tire’s Justin Adrian netted his second of the night on a Graf setup, and Ferguson notched his second of the night on the power play to finish the scoring with five minutes to play in the period. Mackay also picked up three assists for the Tire.
In Thursday’s matches, Pat Iannone dominated, scoring the natural hat trick and adding an assist to lead Arlington to a 4-2 victory over Gericks. The Fruitvale native leads all scorers in the league with seven goals and 15 points in four matches. Re/Max won its first game of the season, getting goals from Paul Barclay, Jason Vecchio, Dyne Parker, and Kieran Hill on its way to a 4-1 victory over OK Tire.
This week’s action will see Re/Max take on Allstar at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, and OK Tire play Gericks for top spot at 8:30 p.m.
On Sunday, Arlington plays Re/Max at 2:15 p.m. and Gericks faces Allstar at 3:30 p.m. at the Cominco Arena.