After a three-week holiday hiatus, the Major Midget Kootenay Ice were back in action on the weekend.
The Ice dropped a pair of games to the Okanagan Rockets. After a close 4-3 loss on Saturday, the Rockets exploded offensively, scorching the Ice 10-0 Sunday.
In the opening match the Okanagan side jumped out into a 4-0 first-period lead before the Ice’s Darren Medeiros notched their first goal with 76 seconds remaining in the frame.
The Ice’s Jake Lucchini assisted on the goal then scored two more to make it 4-3, but the Kootenay team could not complete the comeback.
Brendan Mills picked up the shut out for the Rockets in the second game as the Kelowna team moved into a three-way tie for fourth in the Major Midget League standings.
Lucchini has 15 goals and 15 assists on the season, is ranked in the top 20 in scoring and has factored in 54 per cent of the Kootenay Ice offence.
The Ice play a pair of games in Coquitlam this weekend.
Meanwhile the Female Midget AAA Kootenay Wildcats welcomed the Prince George Cougars to Kootenay country by taking three of a possible four points in a two-game set on the weekend.
In Saturday’s game at the Nelson Civic Centre, the Cougars scored late in the third to salvage a 2-2 tie but the Wildcats would get their offence rolling and prevail in Sunday’s tilt 5-3.
Jessica Carter put the Wildcats up 1-0 on an unassisted effort but the Cougars replied with 1:44 to go in the second frame.
In the third period, Wildcats’ leading scorer Shea Weighill took a pass from Erin McLean and put the Cats up 2-1 with just over six minutes to go But the Cougars knotted it with just over a minute remaining in regulation.
In Sunday’s match, the Cats’ Jordyn Lee converted a pass from McLean and broke a 3-3 tie, netting the winning goal with just under four-minutes to play.
Katie Yuris would add an insurance marker with 73 seconds to go.
The Cougars started the scoring at the 9:16 mark of the first period with a power-play goal but Christina Bonacci would tie it less than a minute later.
The teams exchanged two second period goals, with Linda Jensen netting a short-handed marker putting the Cougars up 2-1. Denomie Vockeroth would tie it on a power play before Weighill added her own to put the Cats up 3-2. However, Prince George locked it at 3-3 on another man-advantage before the end of the period, setting the stage for Lee’s third period heroics.
McLean had three assists in the match while Yuris had a two-point game with a goal and an assist.