In the fourth week of Central Interior Hockey League action, Lac la Hache Tomahawks downed the Houston Luckies 5-4 in a home game, Oct. 27 at Rolf Zeis Memorial Arena.
It was a nice come-back from their last meeting on Oct. 20 in Houston which ended in a 5-2 T-Hawks loss.
Hawks Robbin Gilbert opened the scoring 39 seconds into the game and it went unanswered until midway through the first period when Houston capitalized on a power play.
Wilfred Robbins put the T-Hawks back in the lead early in the second period but the Luckies evened it up again. The tie was short-lived as a goal by Roy Nichol saw the T-Hawks back on top, then Robbins snuck one in with 64 seconds left in the period to put them ahead 4-2.
The Luckies narrowed the gap with an early third period goal but Hawks Gino D’Appolonia, a former Quesnel Kangaroo, gave his team some breathing room with a goal a minute later.
The Luckies managed one last goal in the final minutes of the game but it was too little, too late, allowing the Hawks to skate away with the win.
Sunday saw a rematch with Omineca Ice, and a healthy 6-2 victory for the Tomahawks following last weekend’s slim win where the Hawks beat them just 5-4 in a shoot-out.
Nichol potted the first Tomahawk goal in the opening period which closed at 1-0.
The second frame saw a flurry of goals for the Hawks, with Gilbert, Grant Johnson, Don Nicholas and Wade Balbirnie each good for one apiece. Omineca put themselves on the board with two goals in the second.
Gilbert again made his way past the Omineca goal tender in the third period to end it 6-2 for the Hawks.
Coach Al Navrot says it wasn’t an easy game, despite the lop-sided score.
“We had to work for it. Both teams we played this weekend had really good goal-tending but we kept the pressure up for 60 minutes and it paid off. We have a few snipers too, who can really put the puck in the net.”
The Tomahawks travel to Quesnel next weekend for a single game on Nov. 3 with the Kangaroos. After that, the team can look forward to a one week break before hitting the ice again on a two-game road trip to Williams Lake and Quesnel.
Navrot says they’re not sure if Johnson will be playing next weekend after he suffered a couple of back-to-back hits on Sunday which left him with a swollen cheek. He says they’re worried about the possibility of concussion.
Johnson is the current CIHL scoring leader with 10 points, which is five points ahead of the nearest rivals.