Morning Star Staff
It took 15 games for the Sicamous Eagles to win their first Kootenay International Junior Hockey League game of the season.
Now, the Birds have won three of their last five, including a 6-3 win over the North Okanagan Knights Saturday at the Nor-Val Sports Centre.
The Knights are in Enderby tonight to host the Okanagan Shuswap division-leading Summerland Steam at 7:30 p.m. It’s the first of three games North Okanagan will play at the Enderby Arena this season.
The loss came 24 hours after North Okanagan beat the second-place Osoyoos Coyotes 3-2.
“We weren’t very good,” said Knights head coach Bryant Perrier.
“We had a good start and then we thought that the wheels were going to fall off for them. I don’t have a lot of words. It’s on them (the players). We had them, had them on the ropes and let them off. Sometimes you get what you deserve.”
The Knights jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead Saturday, getting goals at 3:27 from Carl Main (third) and a powerplay marker at 5:24 from Brady Marzocco (team-leading 13th).
The Eagles responded with three goals in a 3:13 span, including one from Grindrod’s Jaden Hay, his fourth goal in nine games with Sicamous, to take a 3-2 lead into the locker room.
Sicamous scored its fourth straight on a powerplay, courtesy of former Knight Jordan Bautista, at 8:57. Layne Greene (first) pulled the Knights back to within one a few minutes later with the man advantage.
A goal less than two minutes into the third period restored the Eagles’ two-goal edge, and Alex Hartman added an unassisted marker with 7:40 remaining.
Max Gaudet made 23 saves to pick up the win while Daniel Paul was tagged with the loss, stopping 21 shots.
The Knights (8-9-1) hold a five-point lead over the Princeton Posse (5-12-2) in the battle for fourth place in the division. North Okanagan sits four points back of third-place Kelowna (10-6-1).
Summerland (12-4-2) has a four-point lead over Osoyoos (11-5) atop the division.