The past, it turns out, doesn't have to haunt you if you don't let it.
One year ago the Nelson Leafs were sinking early. They won just four of their first 12 games, seven of those losses coming during a dismal October. It was a bad start to what ended up being a poor season.
This season is just six games old, but Leafs captain Leighton Partington said the differences between the current squad and last year's roster are clear.
“It just feels like we’re so deep. We’ve got four lines that are going, we’ve got three D pairs that we want, both our goalies are playing unreal. So that’s what it is.”
On Saturday, the Leafs scored there power-play goals and held on late to edge the Columbia Valley Rockies 4-3. The win gave Nelson, at least for one night, the best record in the KIJHL.
Rylan Konecsni, Talin McLeod, Quinn Ramsay, Caden Still scored for the Leafs (5-1-0), with goaltender Devin Degenstein making 32 saves.
Jaiden Jakubowski stopped 38 shots for the Rockies (4-2-0) while Owen Ditzel, Wyatt Wurtz, Carter Hensch each scored for the visitors.
Leafs head coach Briar McNaney said his team already has a better grasp of its systems now than last year's version did into December's games.
“We're very resilient, very confident, and there's that swagger early on that's not cockiness, and there's no negativity, which is a big thing and something we've preached as a coaching staff to each other and as well players.”
It was a Nelson native who scored the game’s first goal, but he wasn’t wearing a Leafs jersey.
The Rockies were on a power play when Leafs defenceman Jimmy Proulx attempted to clear the puck from behind the net. But he instead gifted the puck to Ditzel, who was undefended in the slot for a goal.
The Leafs answered with a power-play goal of their own. Kane Kennedy’s cross-crease pass found a waiting Konecsni for the tying scoring.
Nelson took the lead just 42 seconds later after forcing a turnover at the Rockies’ blueline. The puck came to Elijah Kim, who deked uncontested on Jakubowski but instead of shooting passed back to a trailing McLeod for the goal.
That wasn’t it for scoring during the busy first period. A three-man rush for Columbia Valley ended when Ditzel showed some footwork by spinning around in the slot to feed Wurtz, who slipped the puck past Degenstein’s pad.
The Leafs again took the lead in the second period on yet another power-play goal. Ramsay skated into the zone around the defence and fired a wrist shot that beat Jakubowski clean for a 3-2 advantage.
The period ended with an unexpected fight. Leafs blueliner Jackson MacIntosh and Rockies forward Carter Tuplin collided as they went into a corner for the puck just as the buzzer sounded. As the other players turned to the bench, MacIntosh and Tuplin started trading blows. It wasn’t clear what instigated the fight, but they left the ice to applause all the same.
Nelson padded its lead less than a minute into the third period. The Leafs had just begun a power play when Konecsni looked over his shoulder and slipped a pass to Still, who fired in a shot from the top of the crease to make the score 4-2.
Nelson's power-play units had struggled to score before Saturday, going 3-for-27 heading into the game.
"It's good to finally connect on the power play, and it was also good to play from ahead instead of chasing behind," said Partington.
McNaney said he handed over the special teams reins to assistant coach Gianni Mangone, who put in extra focus on fixing the man advantage during practice.
"He's pretty good special teams wise, and obviously all the work that he did throughout the week and everything that we put those guys through paid off, and hopefully it'll pay off again."
A lack of Leafs defending the slot led to another Rockies goal at 13:56. Dylan Duzan was battling behind the net when his pass found a waiting Hensch for the goal.
The Rockies called a timeout at 2:35 and pulled Jakubowski. But Degenstein made several saves and McNaney called his own timeout with 28 seconds left to give the Leafs a breather before they held on for the win.
On Sept. 28, the Leafs were playing the second of a three-games-in-three-days road trip when they were clobbered 6-2 by the Rockies. Partington said last year's team might have struggled moving past a loss like that, and admitted even he had difficulty controlling his emotions.
But after that loss Nelson beat Creston Valley 7-2, and on Saturday were the better team in a rematch against the Rockies.
“We showed up here, we forget about it, and we just go," said Partington. "That's how we play.”
Leaflets: Avery Hewson served the first of a four-game suspension for a stage fight and aggressor penalty assessed Sept. 29 in Creston. … Nelson next goes on a three-game road trip before returning home Oct. 18 against the Sicamous Eagles.
