Kitimat Ice Demons pull out all the stops to beat Smithers 8-2 in final game for best-of-three CIHL West Division title

The Kitimat Ice Demons, after a four week layoff, dropped the first game of the best-of-thee West Division championship by a score of 7-2 in Smithers last week, but came back to tie the series with a 5-4 win Saturday night.

But the Ice Demons saved their best for the final game on Sunday afternoon at Tamitik, when they hammered the Steelheads, 8-2, with the team’s most complete game of the season.

Craig Hewitson, who scored the last two goals of the Saturday game in spectacular fashion, started the Sunday game the same way, picking up a puck in mid-ice and stick-handling through the defense before beating Jamie Holden in the Smithers’ net for the first goal of the game.

It was his first of two in another three point game that saw the Smithers team collapse in the third period under the Demons’ all-out offence. The offensive thrust finally saw Holden pull himself from the net after letting in eight goals while facing more than 80 shots in the two games.

Smithers two goals were both scored on the power play, in the second period.

On Saturday night, Smithers started slowly, allowing the Demons a 3-1 lead before doggedly tying the game at 3-3 and 4-4 before Demons’ went ahead to stay on Hewitson’s second goal of that game, with seven minutes remaining, assisted by Terry Whelan and Ian Coleman.

Demons had Saturday goals from Jeff Mildenberger (Craig Hewitson, Brent Mailloux); Derek Wakita (Brent Mailloux, David Venman); Chris Vilness (Jeff Mildenberger, Doug Wilson); and Hewitson (2) assisted on the first by Mildenberger and Terry Whelan.

On Sunday, after the Hewitson goal, David Venman gave the Demons a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period, assisted by brother Steven and Chris Vilness.
Jeff Mildenberger (Chris Vilness) and Hewitson ( Mildenberger, Whelan) scored for Kitimat in the second period, while Smithers got two goals on the power play by Kyle Young and Chris Vance.

But the Demons ran away with the game in the third on goals by Corey Finn (Steve Venman, Chris Vilness); Chris Vilness (Mildenberger, Steve Venman); and Ian Coleman (2), assisted on the first by Whelan and Geoff Morgan and on the second by Hewitson and Whelan.

On Saturday Jamie Moran, the league’s leading goaltender in the regular season stopped 19 of 23 Smithers shots and Brett Vilness seemed comfortable in goal Sunday, stopping 17 of 19 Smithers shots.

The Ice Demons will go for their fourth CIHL championship in a row, when they play the Houston Luckies in Houston next Saturday night, before returning to the friendlier confines of Tamitik Arena the following Saturday and Sunday (if necessary).

The Luckies dispatched the East Division regular season winners, the Omenica Ice 5-4 in Vanderhoof Saturday, to take the best of three East Division championship in two straight games.