The Similkameen News Leader
Sports Page - January 06, 2009
SICAMOUS EAGLES STUFF POSSE
The Christmas break may have been too long for the Valley First Princeton Posse, as they appeared a little sluggish in their first home game of 2009 on January 2nd against Sicamous Eagles.
It could have been the turkey and stuffing and it could have been a combination of delayed flights and bad roads, which saw a few players arrive later than planned missing at least one practice.
The game did see the return of Billy Marshall, wearing jersey #2 instead of #6, and fully recovered from a wrist injury he sustained early in the season as well as the return of veteran Brenden Stephen.
The game opened with a moment of silence in memory of 21-year old Don Sanderson, a defenseman with the Whitby Dunlops in Ontario's top senior amateur league who had died earlier in the morning in Hamilton after three weeks in a coma which occurred when his unprotected head struck the ice during a fight on December 12th.
Sanderson sustained massive head trauma after his helmet came off during the fight and he and the player he was fighting both fell to the ice during the scrap.
Sicamous scored first at 11:06 on the power play.
Princeton tied the game at 12:56 of the second period with a goal by Brooks Christensen with assists going to Spencer Brooks and Billy Marshall and added their second goal of the game at 12:44 (Matt Chomyc from Jason Alessio and Kyle L'Arrivee).
Sicamous tied the game up with another goal at 12:29, which meant a total of three goals were scored in the span of 30-seconds.
Sicamous took the lead at 7:57 on the power play.
The third period saw Sicamous widen the gap at 12:38.
Probably the most amazing play of the game was at 13:44 when a loose puck bounced off the boards from a face off to Riley Ferster, who was just inside the blue line to the left of the Sicamous goal, who drilled the black chunk of rubber to the net which went high and bounced off of the face mask of Sicamous goalie Chris Kingdon.
"He didn't even flinch," commented webcast announcer George Elliott to which Posse colour commentator Kevin Darcy replied, "I don't think he even saw it."
Kingdon continued to play the rest of the game as if nothing had happened, that was until Princeton scored a power play goal at 4:49 (Jason Alessio from Matt Chomyc and Kyle L'Arrivee).
Princeton pulled goalie Tanner Sheridan in the final minute of play for an extra man but attempts to tie the game were unsuccessful.
The moment of silence at the beginning of the match must have set the tone for the rest of the game as there were only 16 minor penalties called (eight per team).
Final score: Sicamous 4, Princeton 3. Shots on goal: Princeton 38, Sicamous 32. The Princeton Dairy Queen/Overwaitea players of the game were: #3 - Jason Alessio, #2 - Nate Remple and #1 - Matt
Chomyc.
SUMMERLAND LOSES STING IN PRINCETON
After what could only be described as an 'off' night for the Valley First Princeton Posse, the boys regrouped and virtually set Princeton Arena ablaze January 3rd when they hosted Summerland Sting.
Both teams played a lightning fast game which saw very few penalties (a total of eleven - six for Summerland and five for Princeton), and just a wide-open battle of speed and skill that was a joy to watch.
As the first period was drawing to a close, in probably the fastest 20-minute frame ever played in Princeton, Summerland surprised the the home team with a quick goal with 13.6-seconds on the clock.
The last minute goal did not shift the momentum of the game as both teams continued to push at each other throughout the second period, which was when Princeton scored two goals. The first one was at 16:28 (Nolan O'Brien from Brooks Christensen) and the second was with 1:17 left in the period (Spencer Brooks from Brenden Stephan and Nick Cecconi).
The third period was no less exciting with Princeton widening their lead to 3-1 at 17:31 when Thierry Martine picked up the puck in the Summerland zone and flipped a quick little backhander into the goal.
Summerland responded to Martine's unassisted goal with one of their own at 12:53.
Final score: Princeton 3, Summerland 2. Shots on goal: Princeton 27, Summerland 14.
The Princeton Dairy Queen/Overwaitea players of the game were: #3 - Kyle L'Arrivee, #2 - Nolan O'Brien and #1 - Thierry Martine.
Princeton's next home game is after the All-Star break, a mid-week contest on Wednesday, January 21st against Chase.
