Outdoors, indoors, it didn’t matter to the Northern Capitals.
They brought their winning form to the ice over the weekend at the sixth annual BC Winter Classic and swept the two-game BC Elite Hockey League female triple-A series with the Fraser Valley Rush.
The Capitals got started Friday night in Fort St. James when they beat the Rush 4-3 on the outdoor rink at Ernie Sam Memorial Arena.
Caps defenceman Taylor Siemens scored twice in the opening period and Gabriella Meier added two more before the intermission to give the Caps a 4-1 lead.
The Rush made it interesting when Anna Diane McKee scored late in the second period on a power play and made it a one-goal game with her hat trick goal 15:21 into the third period but that’s as close at it got.
Payton Planetta stopped 22 of 25 shots to earn the victory in net.
The Prince George-based Capitals beat the Rush 3-2 Saturday at Vanderhoof Arena. Nicole Bateman, Ali Caron and Meier scored for the Caps, who outshot their opponents 43-21.
The two wins improved the Capitals’ second-place record to 11-10-0-1, while the Rush (7-11-1-20 remained fourth.
The Capitals will be in Vernon this weekend to take on the third-place (9-10-2-3) Thompson-Okanagan Lakers.
Meanwhile, in the U18 male division, the Winter Classic featured a first-place showdown between the Cariboo Cougars and Vancouver North West Giants and the Giants took both games.
On the outdoor ice Saturday night, goals from Nikhael Dhaliwal, Jared Miskiw, Avery Lowe and Jacob Bauman staked the Giants to a 4-0 lead after 40 minutes and they went on to defeat the Cougars 5-1.
Blake Lambe was the lone goal scorer for Cariboo.
Shay McVicker made 43 saves in goal for the Giants, who were outshot 44-36. Jaxson Dukur took the loss.
In Sunday’s rematch at Fort Forum in Fort St. James, the Cougars fought back from a 5-2 deficit to tie it up in the third period but went on to lose 9-6.
Ryder Marks notched the gamewinner for the Giants with less than five minutes left. Miskiw and Coltan White, with his third of the game, scored empty-netters for the Giants.
Nicolas Gordon had two goals, while Jaxon Larmand, Jack Tidsbury, Ryan Richter and Lambe fired singles for Cariboo.
Roman Singh made 34 saves to win the goalie battle over Cariboo’s Andrik Lygas. The Cougars outshot the Giants 40-36.
The Giants (19-7-0-1) leapfrogged the Cougars (18-6-1-1) into first place in the U18 standings. Cariboo is on the road in North Vancouver this weekend to face the Vancouver North East Chiefs (fifth place, 12-12-2-2).
The Cariboo Cougars U17s dropped both their weekend games in North Vancouver to the Vancouver North West Hawks, losing 6-3 Saturday and 5-3 on Sunday. Cariboo hosts the Hawks in a return engagement Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 10:30 a.m., both at Kin 1.
