The Similkameen News Leader
Sports Page for March 02, 2010
NERVOUS ENERGY NETS PLAYOFF WIN
Princeton Posse entered the second round of KIJHL playoffs February 27th hosting Sicamous Eagles in the first game of a best of seven series. Having finished the regular season in second place in their division, the Posse earned a bye, which allowed them to rest and heal sitting out of the first round.
Okanagan/Shuswap Division Vice President Jim Harrington presented Posse team captain Dan Hillman with the Top Scorer Award just prior to the opening face off.
Hillman finished the season in fifth place overall in the league with 70 points (18 goals and 52 assists) collected over 48 games played but his stats gave him the top spot in the division.
The game itself saw the Posse full of energy. Nervous energy (in the words of Assistant Coach Kevin Robillard) which kept the boys on their toes and also cost them a few times.
Princeton scored first at 15:19 when Ben Reinbolt popped a rebound into the Eagle goal. Assists went to Dayton Shaw and Brendan Stephen.
Sicamous snatched control of the game and scored three unanswered goals in 5-minutes and 19-seconds which sent a message to the home team and saw Princeton shift into gear and add three goals of their own in only 5-minutes and 27-seconds (5:39 Chard Brears from Ben Morgan, 3:05 Spencer Kristensen from Brendan Stephen and Dan Hillman and on the power play with 12.5-seconds left Spencer Kristensen from Brendan Stephen and Lee Muir).
"The two teams took advantage of the intermission to tighten the defense systems," Robillard stated on the Posse website
(www.princetonposse.org).
"Both teams looked to reduce the scoring chances that dominated the first period."
Princeton scored twice in the second. The first goal, at 9:52 (Brooks Christensen from Lee Muir and Chad Brears) was on the power play and the second at 1:16 (Chard Brears from Brooks Christensen) was short handed.
The third period saw Sicamous rally back with three goals of their own to tie the game at 6-all.
At 8:27 Princeton's Brendan Stephen chipped a puck away from the Sicamous defense in the neutral zone and created a 2-on-1 once past the defensemen.
"Using the Posse forward as a decoy Stephen sniped a wrist shot over the Eagle goalie to give the Posse a 7-6 lead," Robillard described the play online.
Final score: Princeton 7, Sicamous 6. Shots on goal: Princeton 27, Sicamous 23. Penalties in minutes: Sicamous 6 for 12-minutes, Princeton 5 for 10-minutes.
GAME TWO TURNS PHYSICAL
Princeton Posse hosted Sicamous Eagles February 28th in the second game of their best of seven second round series.
Both teams pushed their weight around in a very physical sixty-minutes of hockey.
In fact, the first period finished with no scoring and only two penalties were assessed although there was no shortage of pushing and shoving and plenty of hard checking going on.
Princeton got on the scoreboard first at 15:13 of the second with a goal scored by Evan Stack. A single assist went to Spencer Kristensen.
Princeton's Ben Morgan scored the second goal of the game only 35-seconds later at 14:38 with an assist going to Brendan Stephen.
Princeton finished the period with a three-goal lead with Brody Brewster adding one of his own at 7:01. Assists went to Devon Grossler and John Minot.
The third period saw Sicamous attempt to chip away at Princeton's lead scoring their first goal at 16:17 on the power play. Princeton responded at 13:35 with a goal by Ben Morgan with assistance from Chase Salisbury and Brooks Christensen. Morgan had just lost his stick in a freak collision that saw it spin out of his hands and over the plexiglass into the first row of seats. Without missing a beat, a second stick was handed to the player who finished the play with a goal.
Only 30-seconds later Sicamous added their second goal of the game, once again on the power play.
Sicamous pulled goalie Tyler Steel with 1:57 remaining for an extra man creating a 6 on 4 with Princeton's John Minot called one second before for high sticking. Princeton's Bill Marshall was sent to the box at 1:29 for slashing which gave Sicamous a 6 on 3 which they dominated on and added a goal at 1:14.
Princeton cleared the puck a number of times, but couldn't find the empty net in the final seconds of the game.
An emotionally charged Princeton Posse Head Coach Dale 'Duner' Hladun was handed a game miscounduct after coming out on the ice after the final buzzer and shouting criticism at the officials.
Final score: Princeton 4, Sicamous 3. Shots on goal: Sicamous 26, Princeton 13. Penalties in minutes: Princeton 9 for 26-minutes, Sicamous 2-for 4-minutes.
Game #3 moves to Sicamous on Monday, March 1st with Game #4 the following night in Sicamous. If needed, Game #5 will be Thursday, March 4th in Princeton with Game #6 (if needed) set for Friday, March 5th in Sicamous. If the series goes the full seven, the final game will be Saturday, March 6th in Princeton.
