The Kootenay Ice gained some traction in the BC Major Midget League standings after earning a split with the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds on the weekend.
The Ice skated to a 6-5 victory on Saturday at the Cominco Arena, but fell to the defending BCMML champion T-Birds on Sunday 5-1.
In Saturday’s opening match, the Ice fell behind 2-0, but Kootenay tallied six goals from six different scorers on their way to their fourth victory of the young season.
Port Moody product Adam Parsons scored his third of the season on the power play on a setup from Jacob Smith and Noah Quinn at 8:08 to make it 2-1. Then Quinn tallied his team-leading fourth goal and 11th point on a nice individual effort at 4:48 to tie the game at two.
After Fraser Valley’s Dylan Brooks was sent off for interference, Whitehorse, Yukon product, Ashton Underhill, converted a Julian Rutland pass for a 3-2 Ice lead with 12 seconds remaining in the first period.
Fraser Valley evened things up in the second period with Arman Hosseinpour netting his second on the power play at 8:12. The teams went back-and-forth, and Kootenay defenceman Dallas Maximick fired a shot past Thunderbirds goalie Liam Vanderkooi to give Kootenay a 4-3 lead heading into the third.
Fraser Valley tied the game again just 88 seconds into the final frame, but Trail native Joel Smyth netted his first of the campaign, making it 5-4 on an unassisted tally, less than two minutes later.
The Ice took a two-goal lead midway through the third when Ethan Smyth finished a setup from Luken Murray for a 6-4 Kootenay lead.
Fraser Valley drew to within one when Nolan Wall beat Ice goalie Carsten Shrimpton for his second of the game with 3:09 to play, but the Ice goalie shut the door, earning his fourth win of the season in the 5-4 victory.
On Sunday, Fraser Valley scored three unanswered power-play goals in the second period to clinch a 5-1 victory over the Kootenay Ice.
Liam Tanner opened the scoring for the T-Birds, but Kootenay forward Cole Cowan tied the game at one at 9:49. Wall made it 2-1 for the visitors before the period was out. Penalties proved the Ice’s undoing in the second as Fraser Valley’s Liam Tanner, Hosseinpour, and Zachary Urquhart all scored with the Ice shorthanded for the 5-1 victory.
The win leaves the 4-8-0-0 Kootenay Ice in a tie for eighth place in the standings with the Thompson Blazers, and two points behind the 5-7-0-0 South Island Royals and 3-5-1-3 Valley West Giants.
The Ice look to make up more ground this weekend when they travel to Richmond to play the struggling 2-11-0-1 Greater Vancouver Canadians this weekend.
