Tuesday, January 25, 2005 Volume 26 Number 04

Horse Lake's Theoren Fleury closely keeps tabs on the Rangers Jamie Kuntz during the Thunder's 6-5 win over Spirit River. Fleury had a goal and two assists in the win.

Rangers one period away from ending Thunder’s unbeaten season
The Spirit River Rangers held off the high powered Horse Lake Thunder for two periods, but couldn’t contain them for the last 20 minutes as the Thunder edged Spirit River 6-5.
Each team scored once in the first period as Brad Kennedy opened the scoring for the Rangers on the powerplay five minutes into the game. Horse Lake responded with a goal with five minutes left in the period to put the score at 1-1 after 20 minutes.
Horse Lake took a 2-1 lead on Theoren Fleury’s first goal of his NPHL career just 20 seconds into the second period, but the Rangers quickly got that one back 33 seconds later as Jamie Kuntz scored for Spirit River to knot the game at two. Darren Rude scored his first of two goals of the game halfway through the period and Brandon Coates put the score at 4-2 with just 33 seconds left in the period.
Horse Lake battled back early in the third with two goals in under two minutes to tie the game at four. Rude then gave the Rangers their lead back before Horse Lake once again scored two goals in under two minutes to take a 6-5 lead that they held on to for the win.
The Rangers have a busy week this week with three games -- back to back contests with Fairview on Tuesday (home - Jan. 25) and on the road Thursday (Jan. 27) and then head off to Grande Prairie Saturday night (Jan. 29) for a game with the A’s.

Provincial playdowns underway
The Spirit River Peewee Rangers advanced to the second round of Zone 1 playdowns after eliminating Savanna by a combined score of 18-5.
The Rangers won the first game 10-3 on the strength of four goals by Zach Ewing, while Shaw Pickett had the natural hat trick in the third period and Jimmy Nicholson chipped in with a pair of goals. Jesse Knoblauch scored the other goal for Spirit River. Savanna got goals from Ashley Kocsis, Jason Hunder and Danielle Brundell.
Game two had Spirit River winning by a score of 8-2. Shaw Pickett, Travis Gemmell and Mike Svecla had two goals each and Zach Ewing and Jesse Knoblauch added a goal each. Taylor Yanishewski and Mike Viczko replied for Savanna. Spirit River now plays the winner of Smoky River and Sexsmith.
The Rycroft Sharks also advanced to the next round by ousting Valleyview 13-6. They won the first game in Valleyview 5-3 and then downed them 8-3 in Rycroft the very next day.
The Spirit River Midget Girl’s have a four goal cushion heading into game two this Friday night in Spirit River. The girl’s travelled to Beaverlodge on Sunday and skated to a 6-2 win. The Rangers scored five goals in the third period which broke open a 1-1 tie after 40 minutes. Whitney Milkovich recorded the hat trick for Spirit River, while Jessica Chalus, Donna Old and Maggie VandenBerg scored a goal each. Game two is this Friday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. in Spirit River.
The Rycroft Midgets also play Beaverlodge in their first round. Games will be played this weekend.
The Savanna Midgets have a first round bye in their playdowns and they play the winner of the Rycroft/Beaverlodge series.
The Spirit River Atom Rangers were supposed to play Beaverlodge in the first round, but Beaverlodge forfeited the series. The Rangers have to wait a bit to play the winner of Grimshaw and McLennan.
The Rycroft Boyd Cain Trucking Bantams play this Thursday in Falher and then host Falher in game two next Tuesday (Feb. 1) in Rycroft with the puck dropping at 7:30 p.m.
Spirit River Novice Rangers capture own tournament
The Spirit River Senior Novice team went undefeated in their own tournament to capture the gold medal.
Goals by Tanner Howrish, Mason Deley, Davin Burton, Rylan Yaremko, Bowden Sawers, Landon Vollman, Logan Yurchyshyn and Nolan Yaremko helped beat Dawson Creek, Grande Prairie Boston Pizza, Fairview Black and Grande Prairie Risley.
Solid goaltending by Brandan Wells, Davin Burton and Dalton Whittaker helped to keep the scorebard in Spirit River’s favor.
The silver medal went home with the Grande Prairie Risley team.
Atoms: The Savanna Atom Stars picked up three out of a possible four points on the weekend. They downed Beaverlodgge 10-7 on six goals by Kevin Hubert and four more scored by Matthew Molyneux. The next day, Savanna tied the same team (Beaverlodge) 3-3. Dan Viczko, Kevin Hubert and Matthew Moluyneux scored for the Stars.
Peewees: Spirit River Peewee Rangers beat Sexsmith 7-4. Jimmy Nicholson had four goals and singles came off the sticks of Jesse Knoblauch, Taylor McLean and Josh Gemmell.
Bantams: The Rycroft Boyd Cain Trucking Bantam Sharks downed Fort St. John 11-3. Jesse Livingston, Morgan Zahara, Travis Hval and Joel Zahara had two goals each and singles came from Brad Lazoruk, Kurt Konopelka and Kevin Livingston.

Click on one of the links below to read more!

News

Opinion

Classifieds

Community Calendar

Central Peace Signal Staff

Contact Us

Signal Home Page