Bantam Chinooks and Bow Island Rebels play to a draw

Bantam Chinooks vs Bow Island Rebels
C. Davis photos and video

Chris Davis

Pincher Creek's Bantam Chinooks hosted the Bow Island Rebels at the MCC arena on Sunday afternoon, December 9 for what turned out to be one of the better hockey games of the season so far. With the Rebels near the bottom of the Spud League standings and the Chinooks at the top, on paper it should have been an easy win for the home team. The reality was quite different.

The Chinooks assailed the Rebels net over the first 10 minutes of the game to no avail. The bulk of the period saw a lot of fast-paced back and forth action, but thanks to some great goaltending on both ends neither side managed to score, the period ending 0-0. The two teams showed very similar styles of play, and the rough stuff was kept to a minimum, with no penalties at all in the first period.

That changed in the second period, with the Chinooks picking up 6 penalties to the Rebels' 4, but all in all it was a fairly clean game of hockey. With the play continuing to flow back and forth across the ice, this was a defensive game as much as an offensive one. At the 12:26 mark Rebels #2 Logan Bodin scored the first goal of the game, assisted by #15 Cale Simanton. At the 6:02 mark Chinooks #9 Nic Jordan took the puck on a long run from behind the Pincher net all the way down the side of the rink to the Rebels goal, tying it 1-1, unassisted. That's where it stood at the end of the second.

The third period saw both teams take to the ice with renewed vigour. At the 17:02 mark Chinooks #19 Ethan Richards scored, assisted by Nic Jordan, putting the Chinooks ahead 2-1. That goal was answered by Logan Bodin, assisted by Cale Simanton again. 2-2. At the 9:38 mark Nic Jordan scored again for the Chinooks, 3-2. With only 3:16 left in the game Rebels #18 Brandon Lane scored, assisted by #3 Skylar Nelson, tying the game at 3-3, which is where it stayed right to the end.

This was a goalies game as much as anything else. #1 Jeremy Kretz with the Chinooks and #31 James Schwab earned the respect of the crowd after their brilliant performances.

"It was a barn burner," said Chinooks Head Coach Randy Wittkopf after the game. "Good clean hockey. Nobody was out to kill anybody, good passing on both sides, and what I told the kids was the team that made the least amount of mistakes would win. So, obviously, we made equal amount of mistakes, and there you go. I'm very happy with the kids."

"We just stick to our game plan, be the first to the puck, basically have support there when you need it. They all played well. We made mistakes, they made mistakes, they capitalized on ours, we capitalized on theirs."

The Chinooks played Kainai the day before this game, losing by a score of 5-3, their only loss of the season so far.  Remembering their previous game against Kainai here at home (click here for that story) , a brutal affair which resulted in several injuries for the Chinooks, I asked Coach Wittkopf if they were nervous about playing them again. "Absolutely, very intimidating. They're outweighing these kids by not just fifty, but probably seventy five pounds."

The Bantam Chinooks have played 11 regular season games so far, with 8 wins, 1 loss, and 2 ties. They are currently at the top of the Spud League standings for their division. Their next scheduled regular season game is against Lethbridge 3 on Saturday, December 22 at 3:45 pm. They will be in Cranbrook at a tournament next weekend.