Osoyoos Coyotes’ goaltender Lawrence Langan wasn’t severely tested for much of the night, but he had to be attentive during this sequence in the first period of the game against the Chase Heat Saturday night at the Sun Bowl Arena. The Coyotes scored two first-period goals and were never really threatened as they played a solid game to win 3-2. This victory came on the heels of a big 9-4 victory on the road over the Princeton Posse Friday night. (Keith Lacey photo)
The Osoyoos Coyotes snapped out of an extended losing slump with a much-needed pair of convincing wins this past weekend.
After dominating the Princeton Posse Friday night in Princeton by a score of 9-4, the Coyotes returned home Saturday evening and played an outstanding game against the Chase Heat and won 3-2 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate as the Coyotes were never threatened after opening a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.
With only three regular season games remaining – not including Wednesday night’s home game against Princeton – it is almost guaranteed that the Coyotes will be facing the Summerland Steam in the opening round of the Kootenay International Hockey League (KIJHL) divisional playoffs two weeks down the road.
Summerland held a seven-point lead over the Coyotes and also held one game in hand, meaning the only way the Coyotes can overtake them is to win their remaining games and have Summerland lose all of their games.
Summerland still has an outside shot at catching Kelowna for first place in the division as they trail the Chiefs by five points, but do have five games remaining, while the Chiefs only have four.
Unless the Coyotes manage to overtake Summerland, the Steam will have home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs. The playoffs will begin the week of Feb. 24 as the regular season schedule wraps up for all KIJHL teams on Sunday, Feb. 23.
Against Chase, the Coyotes dominated most of the game, but had trouble beating Jacob Mattes as they fired 44 shots during the contest.
They finally beat Mattes as Wyatt Trumbley fired home a wrist shot on the power play with just under four minutes remaining in the opening period.
They increased their lead to 2-0 as Aaron Azevedo scored another power play goal with only 15 seconds remaining in the opening frame.
Rory Neary assisted on both goals.
Chase cut the lead to 2-1 when Alex Durbeniuk beat Coyotes’ goaltender Lawrence Langan four minutes into the middle frame.
Jackson DeMatos scored the biggest goal of the game as he scored a shorthanded marker with six minutes left in the period, with assists going to Rainer Glimpel and Luc Gradisar.
The Coyotes continued to control the play throughout the third period and were never threatened, even though Kaleb Boyle scored a power-play goal with 31 seconds left in the game.
A crowd of 300 fans were on hand to cheer the Coyotes to victory.
Friday night in Princeton, the Coyotes scored early and often as they cruised to the 9-4 victory.
Troy Maclise opened the scoring five minutes into the game, but Princeton rebounded and scored two goals, before Gradisar scored a power-play goal late in the period to tie things up after 20 minutes of play.
Colten Braid restored the lead for the Coyotes early in the second period, before the Posse quickly tied it up once again.
The Coyotes took control after that scoring three goals in 10 minutes with Maclise, Brock McDonald and Rory Neary bulging the twine.
Princeton closed the gap to 6-4 with a late goal in the second period.
The Coyotes put things out of reach with three unanswered goals in the third period.
Azevedo, Liam Neary and Maclise, with his third goal of the night, scored for the Coyotes.
The Coyotes will host Kelowna Saturday night at the Sun Bowl Arena. Game time is 7:35 p.m.
They host the North Okanagan Knights on Friday, Feb. 21 at the Sun Bowl Arena, before playing their final game of the regular season in Summerland on Saturday, Feb. 22.
If Kelowna remains in first place, they would face the North Okanagan Knights in the first round of the playoffs.
Last season, the Coyotes finished in third place in their division in the regular season, but upset Princeton in the opening round of the playoffs.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
