It was the Williamson & Maida Show as Leafs rock Rockets 8-0
By The Nelson Daily Sports
It was the Dylan Williamson & Adam Maida Show Saturday night at the NDCC Arena.
Dylan Williamson scored four times and Adam Maida stopped all 20 shots to power the Nelson Leafs to an 8-0 shellacking of the Golden Rockets in Kootenay International Junior Hockey League action.
The win was the fourth straight, and sixth in the past seven games, for a Leafs team that has been hampered of late with the flu.
Nelson, 11-3-2-1, continues to hold a four-point lead over Beaver Valley Nitehawks in Murdoch Standings.
“Everyone right now is kind of suffering with (flu), myself included, and it just shows the group we have in that room right now and resiliency we have to just keep going no matter what happens,” Maida explained.
After outlasting Grand Forks 8-6 Friday night, Nelson made this game a laugher 23 minutes into the contest.
After Jay Sidhu gave Nelson a 1-0 lead, rookie Dylan Williamson went to work.
The Calgary native scored twice on the same shift, one of the markers coming on the power play, to give Nelson a 3-0 lead after one period.
“It was a lot of fun getting those first two on the same shift was a real momentum builder for me,” said the 6-foot, 160-pound Williamson.
“I was thinking maybe then I could get three after that.”
In the second, Nelson scored twice in less than a minute to take a 5-0 lead.
Leaf captain Aaron Dunlap and magic hands Williamson then finished off the period with two power play goals to give Nelson a commanding 7-0 lead after 40 minutes.
Williamson scored his fourth of the game in the third, flipping a shot from the corner that somehow found its way into the net.
“On the third I just wacked at it and it went top shelf but on the fourth, I think someone was looking down on me on the fourth because I just flipped it at the net and it went in,” said Williamson, scoring two of Nelson three power play goals.
Leading by eight, Nelson played out the rest of the game allowing Maida to register the shutout.
“It’s huge (winning four in a row) on any level of hockey,” Maida exclaimed.
“We’re just focusing on right now on playing our game trying to get all the points we can get,” Maida added.
Nelson out shot the Rockets 32-20 in the contest with Williamson being named the Home Star in the contest.
Next home game for Nelson is Saturday against the Columbia Valley Rockies.
LEAF NOTES: Nelson lost the services of Patrick Croome in the third period after the burley defenceman came to the aid of Dylan Williamson during an altercation neat the Golden player’s bench. . . .Nelson finished the month of October with a 7-2-1 record. . . . Matt MacDonald had four assists to take over the lead in Leafs scoring with 21 points. Robson Cramer, who had three points, is second with 19 points. Michael Crawford also finished with three points. . . . Dylan Williamson has registered 11 points (six goals and five assists) in five games with Nelson.
