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Ice pick up a pair of weekend wins, move up the standings

The Cold Lake Ice are moving up in the NEAJBHL standings after picking up a pair of wins on the weekend. Following a disappointing 4-3 shootout loss to Frog Lake on Wednesday, the Ice trampled the Vermilion Tigers 5-1 Friday night.
The local group Protection for the Unprotected was on hand the Ice game on Saturday, gathering Christmas presents to give away to local children.
The local group Protection for the Unprotected was on hand the Ice game on Saturday, gathering Christmas presents to give away to local children.

The Cold Lake Ice are moving up in the NEAJBHL standings after picking up a pair of wins on the weekend.

Following a disappointing 4-3 shootout loss to Frog Lake on Wednesday, the Ice trampled the Vermilion Tigers 5-1 Friday night. In front of a home crowd again on Saturday, the Ice had no problem keeping St. Paul at bay in a 6-1 victory.

“Obviously we're coming a long ways here. We had a five game stretch with some guys hurt and we should have been five-and-0, but we'll take the three-one-and-one,” said head coach Scott Hood. “It's getting better and better, and they're buying in now so that's why we're winning.”

The Ice found themselves short a few key players on Friday night, but the young team stepped up and showed they can be tough to beat.

Ice forward Mike Harbich notched the first goal of the game exactly eight minutes in, getting Cold Lake on the board with an early lead. A veteran with the team, Harbich currently leads the Ice in scoring with 10 goals so far this season.

Managing to hold off Vermilion power plays, with just two minutes left in the period Josh Kohut found the back of the net bringing the Ice up 2-0 over the visiting Tigers.

There were some new names on the Ice roster for the night, as APs Tanner Barnes, Jacob Bartman and Shaunessy Owen-Usher were brought up to fill the holes.

“We just want to get a look at them and get some interest back in playing. They played good for us, and we'll hopefully get them in a few more games as the year progresses,” said Hood.

Heading into the second frame, the period got off to a slow start. Shortly after the halfway point Harbich kept his momentum going, firing the puck past Tigers net minder Danton Brooks for his second goal of the night.

A little over three minutes later, Donavan Bibeau got his name on the score sheet with what would be his first of six points over the weekend. Vermilion still unable to put a scoring play together, let the Ice ease into the final period with a 4-0 lead.

Just 16 seconds into the third, the Tigers made an attempt at a comeback sneaking the puck past Ice goalie Dahlin Supernault. The Ice quickly put a stop to that, thanks to a goal 3:20 later from Linden Jackson. Neither team was able to grab another goal for the remainder of the game, keeping the score 5-1 for the Ice.

“Every win for us is huge here on in. You've got to move up the standings and to do that you've got to win,” said Hood. “I've seen a lot of good things, definitely some things we need to work on again, but we'll take this one.”

Cold Lake was back in action Saturday night, taking on the third-ranked St. Paul Canadiens.

The Canadiens took the lead with less than five minutes left in the first and managed to hold on until the second period. Curtis Witney got the Ice on the board at the 10:34 mark in the second, tying the game a one-apiece.

Less than a minute later, Bibeau fired the puck in the net to give the Ice the lead. He wasn't done yet, though. Bibeau decided to go on a scoring streak. With three minutes left in the second, Bibeau notched his second goal of the night.

Heading into the third 3-1, Bibeau found a hat trick 3:30 in – his first with the Ice. Just for good measure he added a fourth goal to his night, putting the Ice up 5-1.

“It felt pretty good. I couldn't have done it without my teammates, I was just in the right place at the right times and they found me every time so it was pretty nice,” said Bibeau.

St. Paul wasn't able to recoup the goals they had given up. In the final six minutes of play, Ice rookie Jared Jorgenson added insult to injury, nabbing his first goal of the season.

“It felt really good to finally bury one, it made me really happy,” said Jorgenson.

He added, “It was just going hard to the net and keeping my space from other players; it fell onto my stick and I put it in.”

The final score was 6-1 for the Ice.

“Playing like this, I told the boys we'll be tough to beat if we keep doing this. We followed our systems, we stayed disciplined, we've done everything we're been talking about all year and it's finally showing off,” said Hood. “Hopefully that can continue into the next little stretch too.”

The Cold Lake Ice now have some time off before their next game on Dec. 2 when they take on the Saddle Lake Warriors at home. Puck drop is 8 p.m.

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