The Kootenay ICE continued their busy weekend against the Spokane Chiefs at Western Financial Place on Saturday night.
The goals were not missing as the Chiefs downed the ICE 8-4.
“It was a tough game for us. The bounces definitely didn’t go our way, but that’s all you can do. You can take what you learn from it and go into the next game coming even harder using that energy, and that little hate you got from tonight,” said forward Peyton Krebs.
Two goals during four-on-four play gave the Chiefs the early lead with Noah King and Luke Toporowski finding the back of the net.
“Four-on-four is interesting it’s like a penalty kill, but a power play at the same time so, just a little confusion there, but good goals from them. I think we can definitely be better,” said Krebs.
The ICE got the score within one before the end of the first period with Cole Muir scoring his 10th of the season to make it 2-1.
After back and forth play in the second period, the ICE were unable to clear the puck and the Chiefs added to their lead with a goal from Jake McGrew.
Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Ethan McIndoe added goals of their own to give the Chiefs a 5-1 lead heading into the third period.
“We got totally outclassed tonight. I just thought we got beat in every area. They out-skated us, they outworked us and their goalie was better than ours,” said head coach James Patrick.
“It was a real tough one from top to bottom for us.”
The Chiefs added to their goal total with goals from Luc Smith, Graham Sward and another from McGrew.
While the ICE had goals from Krebs and Muir, Owen Pederson and Zachary Patrick also hit the scoresheet to make the final 8-4.
“We are scoring more goals, which is a start. But, we have to keep them out of our net and battle harder. Someone has to go in the front of the net and we have to block more shots,” said forward Brad Ginnell.
Connor McClennon was back in the lineup and made his return from injury on Jan. 4 in Medicine Hat after missing six weeks of play.
“It was a tough game to evaluate him because I think so many of our guys had tough games. Obviously, Connor for us has to be skating, he has to be making some plays - he’s a playmaker. He missed six weeks so maybe he needs a couple of games to get a little more comfortable,” said James.
The ICE will be back in action less than 24 hours later at Western Financial Place as they take on the Vancouver Giants.
“We need to have a better start. I think on Friday and today we had slow starts and it caught up on us a little bit later in the game. Tomorrow we have to come out flying and play our game,” said Ginnell.
Fans will also get to see Cranbrook native defenceman, Bowen Byram when the Giants are in town. Puck drop is 4 p.m.