Leafs force deciding game in Murdoch Semi, bounce Braves 4-1
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The Murdoch Division Champs proved their 70-point regular season was no fluke.
Cole Wyatt scored three times to spark the Nelson Leafs to a 4-1 victory over the Spokane Braves in a Kootenay International Junior Hockey League elimination game Tuesday in the Lilac City. The win forces a Game seven Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the NDCC Arena.
The key to this win Nelson, first getting the lead, and then, having the best goalie in the KIJHL — Caiden Kreitz — play like the best goalie in the KIJHL.
Wyatt scored twice in the final minutes of the opening period, the dagger, a power play marker, coming with 22 seconds remaining in the frame. Reid Wilson increase the lead to 3-0 in the second before Aaron Morris finally beat Kreitz in the Leaf nets.
Wyatt then put the icing on the cake with an empty net goal in the third. Spokane had taken over the period firing 19 shots at Kreitz.
Nelson, outshooting the Braves 43-38, finished one-for-three with the man advantage while the Leafs special teams kept Spokane scoreless in five power play opportunities.
Emery Neilson, Tyler Nypower, Shawn Grobowsky, Tulsen Fawcet and Jack Karran each registered a point a Nelson lived to play another day.
ICE CHIPS: Spokane started backup Ben Waslaski for the second straight game instead of Campbell Arnold in goal. . . .The last time Spokane advance out of the Murdoch Division Semi Finals was in 2010. . . . The last time a fourth-place team upset a Division winner came in 2014 when North Okanagan edged Summerland Steam in seven games. . . . The series winner meets Beaver Valley Nitehawks for the Murdoch Division Title. The Hawks swept Grand Forks Border Bruins 4-0.
