The Hazelton Wolverines edged the defending champion Terrace River Kings out of second place in the Central Interior Hockey League with a commanding 8-4 win last weekend.<\/p>\n
Fresh off back-to-back losses on Nov. 8 and 9, Hazelton marched into Terrace’s barn on a mission with Jordan Thomas, Ethan Browne, and Daniel Kenaghan banging in markers in the first period. Terrace would get one back making the score 3-1 at the end of 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
The Wolverines came out firing again in the second frame, knocking in two more at 1:19 (Sean Maktaak) and 1:26 (Jonah Bevington), before Browne made it 5-1.<\/p>\n
Terrace clawed back a couple, to make it 5-3 going into the final period.<\/p>\n
Just five minutes into the third, Browne managed to complete the hat trick and Kernaghan added his second of the night to give the Wolverines a commanding 8-3 lead.<\/p>\n
A late Terrace goal was far too little, too late for the home team.<\/p>\n
The previous weekend, Hazelton came up short in back-to-back road games, with a 9–7 loss to the Williams Lake Stampeders on Nov. 8 before falling 6–4 to the Quesnel Kangaroos the following night.<\/p>\n
Friday’s game in Williams Lake was a high-scoring, back-and-forth contest at the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex. Hazelton struck first just two minutes in with a goal from Kernaghan, assisted by Tanner Wort. They went up 2-0 at 6:22 on a goal by Bevington.<\/p>\n
But the Stamps answered quickly and forcefully, scoring four straight goals to take a 4–2 lead into the first intermission.<\/p>\n
Early in the second frame, Bevington cut the lead by one with his second of the game, but a few minutes later the Wolverines were penalized for too many players on the ice. Williams Lake converted on the resulting power play and added another goal a minute later to put the visitors in a 6-3 hole.<\/p>\n
The Wolverines battled back with markers from Dawson McKenzie and Ilijah Colina — cutting the deficit to 6–5 by the end of 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
Williams Lake added three more goals in the third making the lead an insurmountable 9-5 despite a late rally by the visitors. Colina scored his second of the night at 16:16, followed shortly by a power-play goal from Wort after Stampeders goaltender Ryan Balbirnie was called for roughing.<\/p>\n
The next night in Quesnel, the Wolverines again found themselves in a tightly contested game — this time one marked by a volatile second period.<\/p>\n
Quesnel opened the scoring at 6:05 of the first, with Eli Jarvis finishing a play from Alessio Tomassetti and Brody Dale. Hazelton responded at 11:12 with a goal from Ethan Browne to tie the game 1–1.<\/p>\n
The first half of the second period was volatile with several penalties for roughing assessed on both sides. The penalty-killers were solid, though, until a high-sticking call put the Roos’ Tanner Cochrane in the box. Hazelton took advantage, pulling ahead on the power play with a goal from McKenzie at 11:06. Less than a minute later, Bevington added another, giving the Wolverines a 3–1 lead.<\/p>\n
Quesnel responded with three unanswered goals in the last five minutes of the frame, giving the Kangaroos a brief 4–3 lead before McKenzie replied just 19 seconds later with his second of the night, tying the game 4–4.<\/p>\n
The Roos’ Alessio Tomassetti restored Quesnel’s lead halfway through the third with an unassisted goal and sealed the win with an empty-netter at 19:32.<\/p>\n
Quesnel now leads the league with 14 points through eight games, holding a 7–2 record.<\/p>\n
Hazelton sits in second place with 11 points through eight, followed by Terrace in third with nine points from seven games.<\/p>\n
Prince Rupert and Williams Lake are tied at eight points each, placing fourth and fifth, respectively, as the Rampage have two games in hand over the Stampeders.<\/p>\n
Smithers holds sixth place with four points, while Kitimat rounds out the standings without a win so far this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hazelton is now in second place in the CIHL with 11 points <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":160048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n