It's taking a little bit of time, but Leafs are getting better
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr,
The Nelson Daily Sports
Fail to score one night. Allow seven markers the next, but manage to put up football numbers to get a victory.
Three days later, see the offence dry up once again but still find enough goals and ride some red-hot goaltending to steal a 2-0 victory.
Such is life this season for the Nelson Leafs as the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League franchise attempts bounce back from a dismal 0-4 start and return to some winning ways that fans have become accustomed to seeing on a daily basis.
“We finished two (wins) and one (loss) on the weekend so we can’t be too upset about that,” said Leaf team captain Taylor O’Neill. “The team is starting to come together . . . we’re starting to look pretty good.”
O’Neil has been a solid contributor to the Green and White for the past three seasons. At 6’1”, 185-pounds, the Kelowna native has been a force to deal with any time an opponent skates across the blueline or stands in front of the Leaf net.
But this season has been a little frustrating for O’Neil. Not used to losing after advancing to the KIJHL final the past two seasons, O’Neil has had to bite his lip on a few occasions as he tries to captain a team full of rookies on to bigger and better things.
“I still can’t really tell, but (what I like) is we have a good guys though,” said O’Neil, still a little unsure of 2010-11 edition of the Leafs.
“We’ve got the guys who will grind it out,” O’Neil added after Nelson edged the Princeton Posse 2-0 Sunday at the NDCC Arena. “We’ve got the guys to can put it in the net. It we’ll all come together soon. You can already see flashes of it.”
It may take a while for the Leafs to pull together with no less than 10 rookies on the roster. But there remains hope at the end of the tunnel.
The Leafs out shot the Beaver Valley Nitehawks Friday night in Fruitvale 33-22, but ran into a red hot Mike Vlanich in the home nets. At 6’3” and 200 pounds, Vlanich had all the answers, stopping 33 attempts to give the Hawks a 3-0 victory.
The loss is the fourth of the season against teams ahead of Nelson in the Neil Murdoch Division standings — Beaver Valley and front-running Castlegar Rebels.
“Maybe it’s a mental thing,” O’Neil said when asked about the upper echelon Murdoch teams. “We know we can compete against them.”
“But those teams have been together a little longer,” added the 19, soon to be 20-year-old O)’Neil. “They have a lot of the same players coming back and don’t have very many rookies. Once we get set in a couple of more months we’ll be alright.”
Where Nelson, 4-6, has been good is outside the division. The Leafs are 3-1 — with the only loss coming against a Fernie team that is building with veterans as the franchise plays host to the Cyclone Taylor Cup next year — against teams outside the Murdoch.
And, despite serving up leads of 3-1 and 6-4 Saturday, the Leafs were able to add another digit to the win column in a shootout against the Golden Rockets. Veteran sniper Gavin Currie came to the rescue sparking Nelson to a 9-7 victory over the Golden Rockets.
Currie, finishing the contest with three goals, netted a pair of markers in the third period as Nelson pulled away. Braeden Hikichi, scoring twice, and Adrian Moyls, with a single, each added three points for the winners. Connor Enright, Patrick Martens and Tanner Burns also scored for Nelson.
However, the winds changed for the offence Sunday at home against Princeton. Facing a grind-it-out Posse squad, with a Weston Joseph standing tall in the nets, the Leafs managed to take care of business in their own zone and score just enough to blank the visitors 2-0.
Enright potted the only goal the Leafs would need as netminder Darren Hogg frustrated the Posse shooters throughout the game, making all 18 saves to post the shutout.
“(Saturday) was just a ridiculous game . . . it’s the most incredible game I’ve ever played in,” the towering 6’2”, 205-pound Hogg said when asked about Saturday’s shootout. “Today (Sunday’s win) was a really good feeling to be out there. The boys did their job tonight which allowed me to do my job.”
“I think it was a mental thing as well,” O’Neil added, comparing Hogg’s performance between the pipes Saturday and Sunday. “He knew that he had to redeem himself, as did everyone. And (Darren) proved it today, for sure.”
Martens, blasting a shot from the point into the empty net, completed the scoring for Nelson Sunday against Princeton. The Leafs have appeared to change directions after the slow start. Nelson is 5-2 in its last seven games to pull to within four points of third place Spokane Braves and Beaver Valley Nitehawks.
Both teams have played more games than Nelson to date. Nelson is also coming to grips with an injury bug that plagues every team at some point during the season.
Sophomore defenceman Tyler Parfeniuk was back in the lineup after healing an upper body injury. And forward Cody Abbey is getting better — although not completely recovered from an upper body injury that was not diagnosed correctly.
The Leafs will want to improve on that Murdoch record if the club has any hopes of moving up the standings. The next four games — and five of the upcoming six — are against Murdoch opponents, starting Friday in Castlegar against the Rebels.
Saturday Nelson hosts the Spokane Braves at 7 p.m. in the NDCC Arena.
Fans can only guess which Leaf team will show up.
O’Neil hopes it’s a similar team like the one that made it two the KIJHL finals, winning it all in 2009.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
