The Similkameen News Leader
Sports Page - February 03, 2009
POSSE WIN BIG AGAINST REVELSTOKE
The scene was set.
The Valley First Princeton Posse has had a pretty rough couple of weeks. The team is coming off a four-game losing streak, which includes a pointless three-game road trip deep into the Kootenays and looks to end the season with nine out of their last ten games inter-divisional contests. To add to this, the Posse currently sits in fifth place in their division, the last playoff spot.
So when the Revelstoke Grizzlies came to town January 30th, there was a lot riding on the game, especially considering the Grizzlies are ahead of Princeton by only two points in the standings.
Former Posse trainer Clint Clifton described the match up perfectly during the team's webcast prior to the opening face-off.
"The teams are a mirror image of each other. Even the refs will say in this league these two teams play very similar styles of hockey and obviously, with the standings they're a couple points away from each other so it should be a really hard fought hockey game tonight."
Clifton called it spot on.
The first period saw a lot of posturing from both teams but no scoring.
Princeton got on the scoreboard first at 13:49 of the second period with a goal by Matt Chomyc. Assists went to Kyle L'Arrivee and Leeland Malkinson.
Then at 7:59 Spencer Brooks took a pass from Jared Hidber and took the puck into Grizzly territory. Brooks had his stick extended as far as he could get it with one hand and whipped himself around a Revelstoke player and managed to one-hand a backhander into the net for Princeton's second goal of the night.
Revelstoke replied with a power play goal with 56.1-seconds left in the frame.
The third period saw Revelstoke tie the game at 10:06.
Princeton applied intense amounts of pressure on the Revelstoke net and it paid off at 9:38 when Brody Brewster fed the puck to Derrick DeLisser who passed across the front of the goal crease and Nate Rempel was able to poke the puck behind the goalie before he could get into position.
Princeton added another goal at 8:06 by Matt Chomyc. Assists went to John Minot and Kyle L'Arrivee.
Although both teams were obviously evenly matched throughout the game, it was the incredible play by both netminders (Princeton's Michael Garteig and Revelstoke's Jordan Barry) that kept the scoring down to a minimum.
Final score: Princeton 4, Revelstoke 2. Shots on goal: Revelstoke 31, Princeton 25.
The Princeton Dairy Queen/Overwaitea Foods players of the game were: #3 - John Minot, #2 - Matt Chomyc and #1 - Michael
Garteig.
KAMLOOPS 124, PRINCETON 117
When you talk about a game where one team clearly dominates the other, it usually means everything from playing the game to stats and data collected from that match.
The January 31st game at Princeton Arena where the Valley First Princeton Posse hosted Kamloops Storm for their final regular season game together was all about domination.
The Storm controlled the play virtually from the opening face-off and scored two goals in the first period.
The first intermission featured a 6-minute 'mini game' with the Princeton Flyers taking on Kamloops Steelers. The game was to assist in cross promoting the Princeton Flyers OC' Spirit of 2010 Hockey Tournament taking place over the weekend at the arena.
The Posse and Storm players stayed on the bench to cheer their respective junior teams on.
The 6 and 7-year olds played a great game, which entertained spectators and prompted the Princeton Posse webcast crew to provide a play-by-play of the action.
The Steelers finished the match with a 2-0 victory.
Speaking of domination, the Storm added three more goals to their total in the second period of the KIJHL contest.
The third period saw a frustrated Princeton Posse attempt to come back adding some hard hits to their repertoire.
Then Kamloops added two more goals.
Finally Princeton got on the scoreboard at 6:44 when Bill Marshall passed to Brenden Stephen who blasted a missile at the Kamloops net which sailed high and over the left shoulder of the Storm goalie.
Then the wheels fell off.
At 9:04 just about every player on ice picked a partner and started swinging. By the time the officials were able to regain control and decipher their notes a total of 143 penalty minutes were assessed.
The final minutes of the game saw two decimated teams go through the motions until time expired.
Final score: Kamloops 7, Princeton 1. Shots on goal: Kamloops 28, Princeton 21. Penalty minutes: Kamloops 124, Princeton 117. The Princeton Dairy Queen/Overwaitea Foods players of the game were: #3 - Brenden Stephen, #2 - Derrick DeLisser and #1 - Jason Alessio.
