Carter Shannon was unable to score in this September game against the Kamloops Storm. He more than made up for it with two goals and an assist this past weekend. (Richard McGuire file photo)

After two victories over the Kamloops Storm in Quesnel on the weekend, the Osoyoos Coyotes find themselves just two points shy of first place in the Okanagan Division of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League.

The Coyotes beat the Storm 3-1 on Friday and 6-2 on Saturday in games played at the new West Fraser Centre and Quesnel Arena.

The Coyotes now have 37 points, just two behind the Summerland Steam with 39. But the Coyotes have two games in hand.

The Coyotes and Steam will face each other in games at the Sun Bowl Arena this Friday, Dec. 15 and again on Dec. 29 as they battle for the top spot in the division.

Carter Shannon led off the scoring in Friday’s game with a first-period power-play goal. Colin Bell and Carter Robinson assisted.

Bell then made it 2-0 three minutes later, with Judd Repole assisting.

The Coyotes got the only goal of the second period on a power play with Cameron Welch scoring and Shannon and Bell assisting. This gave the Coyotes a two for four power play success rate.

Finally, six minutes into the third period, Kamloops scored its only goal, ruining Coyote goalie Liam Aitken’s hopes for a shutout.

In Saturday’s game, the Coyotes led 4-0 before Kamloops finally scored on a power play late in the second period.

Coyote goals in the first two periods were scored by Robinson, Sam Reinbolt, Connor Onstein and a power-play goal by Shannon.

Midway through the third period, Dario Piva scored an unassisted, short-handed goal for Kamloops to narrow the gap to 4-2.

Repole made it 5-2 on a power play late in the third period and a minute later Reinbolt added another for the Coyotes, to end the game at 6-2.

The Coyotes play this Wednesday in Princeton against the third-place Posse. Then on Friday and Saturday they return to host Summerland and Princeton respectively at the Sun Bowl Arena.

The time of both home games is 7:35 p.m.

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times