The Nakusp Falcons Atom team emerged victorious after two weekend games against the Greater Trail Giants.
The two teams faced off against each other in the Falcons’ final home games of the season.
Things got off to an interesting start. The Giants scored their first goal about three minutes into the first period, but the Falconsretaliated with a goal about a minute later.
Trail scored again shortly after, making the score 2-1 for the Giants.
The Falcons did their best to score again and keep the puck out of their zone. With just under three minutes left in the firstperiod, the Falcons scored again, tying up the game 2-2.
By the end of the third period, they were on a roll, scoring goal after goal, defeating the Giants 8-4, with Falcons team memberDakota Fizzard scoring six goals in the game.
Game two was a little different.
Realizing how strong Fizzard was, the Giants had one or two players on him at all times.
Fizzard’s older brother, Noah, was one of the referees at the game. He was impressed with how his brother handled himself onthe ice.
“I think he did pretty good,” he said. “They were kind of pushing him around a little because they knew that he was a better oneon the team, so they were being aware of him.”
Mike Smith, head coach for the Atom team, agreed.
“It was amazing how he handled it,” he said. “He’s got two kids hanging off him the whole game, and to not take penalties waspretty impressive”
He said because Fizzard is a good player, it’s something he has to get used to.
“We told him to keep his calm, and when they get penalties on him, he gets his chance to score.”
About halfway through the first period, neither team had managed to score a goal. In fact, it would be about half way throughthe whole game before the either team would make a goal.
Ten minutes into the second period, the Falcons scored against the Giants. They managed another with a minute left, bringingthe score to 2-0.
They scored again about 20 seconds into the final period.
The Giants were able to score their first goal of the game in the last eight minutes of the period, scoring again soon after,making the score 3-2.
Tensions were high as they tried to tie up the game, and were made higher as the Falcons scored again in the last 30 seconds ofthe game. The score was now 4-2 for the Falcons.
Though the Giants managed another goal in the last 16 seconds, even going so far as to pull their goalie out in order to haveanother player on the ice, it did no good.
Falcons won against the Giants 4-3.
Smith was impressed with the games.
“Those were two our hardest games of the year, I would say. Trail played very well, and they did a good job at checking our topguys.”
Currently, the Falcons are tied with Grand Forks for first place.
They find out next week who they face off against in the playoffs.
The team heads to Trail on March 5 for their final games.