The first round of the playoffs are well underway between your Chase Heat and the 100 Mile House Wranglers. Four games in and the scintillating series has seesawed back and forth with bangs, crashes and amazing speed.
Game one on Friday, Feb. 20 saw the visiting Wranglers squeak out a 4-3 victory in double overtime.
100 Mile got two in the first and one in the second before Chase came back with three in the third. Kaleb Boyle from Wesley Matsuda and Cole Perison, Chad Wilde from Boyle and Braden Hughes and then Boyle again from Cody Hodges and Wilde. But those heroics aside, the Wrangles spoiled any thoughts of a party in the second overtime.
Game two on Saturday the 21st saw the 340 attendees – the largest and loudest crowd of the season, bolster the locals to a 5-3 victory. In the first, Travis Beaubien from Kolten Moore and Tommy Brown. In the second, Wilde from Boyle and Matsuda and then Wilde on the power play from Hodges and Trevor Okino. In the third, two more, Brown from Tyler Mork and Hughes and then Hodges on the power play from Boyle and Matsuda. With a five-goal spread, the boys took their feet off the gas and 100 Mile got two to make it interesting.
Off to the Cariboo Mecca for games three and four. On Monday the 23rd, Chase got on the board first in the second period, a power-play marker from Boyle assisted by Okino and Wilde. Then the Wranglers took over scoring four straight to claim a 4-1 win.
Game four on Tuesday the 24th was an epic nail biter from start to finish in double overtime. These two teams clearly have a total dislike for each other and two different styles. 100 Mile crashes and bangs nonstop while the Heat display superior skill and speed. So no scoring in the first, and then 100 Mile gets two in the second. In the third, Kolten Moore gets one back from Tommy Brown. The Wranglers pot another one before Logan Mostat scores a spectacular goal assisted by Perison. Then Boyle from Mostat and Wilde ties the match. In the first sudden-death overtime there was tension throughout the barn holding 460 hockey fans. Exhaustion was starting to show when Cole Perison took the shot of his career to score his first-ever KIJHL goal in double overtime from Alex Durbeniuk and Mostat.
Tied at two games apiece, many battles have been won and lost, but the war continues as the two get together again Thursday the 26th at Art Holding Memorial Arena, and then Friday in 100 Mile.
If necessary, a seventh game will be played Saturday the 28th in Chase.