Atom Chinooks romp to 10-4 win over Irvine Bulldogs

Atom Chinooks vs Irvine Bulldogs
C. Davis photos and videos

Chris Davis, Sports

Pincher Creek's Atom Chinooks hosted Irvine's Bulldogs at the MCC arena on Friday evening January 10 for a memorable game of hockey. A game that began as a contest between equals ended as a decisive 10-4 victory for the Chinooks.

Going into this game the Chinooks were at the bottom of the Spud League Atom A standings. Of five regular season games this was the first win for the Chinooks, and if they keep playing like they did last night it most certainly won't be their last. What we saw out there was a supercharged team, giving a highly energized performance throughout. The Atom Chinooks get my vote for the most transformed team of this season. At the halfway mark they've gelled into real contenders.

The Bulldogs scored first with an unassisted breakaway goal by #4 Austin Munsch at the 12:54 mark. Chinooks #2 Alex Comeau evened the score with an unassisted powerplay goal at the 6:59 mark. Spoilers: Comeau went on to earn himself a hat trick. Then Chinooks #5 Logan Deley sunk a rocketing long shot with 1:39 remaining to make it 2-1 Chinooks, which is where it stood to the end of the first. #3 Christian Berthiaume picked up an assist on that play.

Both teams were pushing hard again right from the beginning of the second period, but there was magic going on for the Chinooks, who were in the zone and playing at an elevated level. Transformed. Chinooks #17 Rylan Bruns dumped it in from behind,  unassisted at the 18:14 mark, to make it 3-1.

 9 minutes into the period Alex Comeau scored again, unassisted. 4-1. Back and forth the struggle continued. Solid goaltending on both ends, solid back checking, lots of great passing plays, and some truly impressive stickwork. With 5:05 remaining in the period Chinooks #6 Riley Potts snagged it away from a Bulldog to score unassisted.  6-1 Chinooks. Potts scored again with 1:36 remaining in the period. 7-1. The lone Bulldogs goal of the period was scored by #3 Tyrene Davis with only 48 seconds remaining in the period, assisted by #19 Blair Herrmann and #22 Luke Renschler.

Going into the third period up 6-2 the Chinooks could be forgiven for being a little bit cocky, but instead they were determined and focused. Riley Potts scored his hat trick goal of the game at 17:02 on the clock, this time assisted by #13 William Johnson Junior and Rylan Bruns.  Three goals in a row for Potts.

At the 14:50 mark Chinooks #8 Caleb Evans picked the puck out of a netside scrum to make it 8-2, also assisted by Bruns. With 8:33 remaining Bulldogs #15 Hunter Stimson scored, assisted by #18 Deegan Klimosko. 8-3. With 5:57 remaining Alex Comeau scored his third unassisted goal of the game, slicing through the Bulldogs' defence with speed and determintation. 9-3. 

 With 4:45 remaining Hunter Stimson scored again for the Bulldogs, assisted by #9 Nick Lee. 9-4. The final goal of the game was scored by Rylan Bruns for the Chinooks with 3:44 remaining, assisted by #4 Connor Stuckey. 10-4 Chinooks. Cue ecstatic fans.

#23 Koltyn "Kipper" Kipling was amazing in net for the Chinooks.

It was nice to see recently returned Chinook #11 Tristen Blood giving it his all out there. 

Digger William Johnson Junior
Photo courtesy Janine Johnson

William Junior Johnson received the team's "Grinch" digger award. Everybody on the team deserves recognition for the efforts they contributed. This was truly a team victory. Big improvements were apparent, including fore and back checking, passing plays, set-ups, speed, engagement in the game, camaraderie, awareness. 

You were missed out there Nico.

Kudos to both teams for a clean game.  Only one penalty for the Chinooks and only two penalties for the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs get a rematch next Saturday January 18 when they are scheduled to host the Chinooks at the Irvine Sports Complex, 5:45 pm gametime.

By George that was a good game!