The Cowichan Valley Capitals played a home-and-home set against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs on Nov. 1 in Duncan and Nov. 2 in Port Alberni. Despite out-shooting the Bulldogs 54-24 at home and 41-30 away, Cowichan ran into a hot goaltender in Alberni's Colin Winn, and lost both games. It was the first time they'd lost two in a row since the regular season's opening weekend Sept. 21 and 22.
"We are creating enough scoring opportunities to win but they haven't gone in," said head coach Cam Keith following the weekend's games. "It's a combination of good goaltending and unfortunate puck luck. At the same time we can work harder around the net to find secondary scoring chances to change our luck."
In Duncan in front of a crowd of close to 1,800 fans, it was former Kerry Park Islander Jacob Wingfield who struck first for the Bulldogs, potting his fourth of the year midway through the first period. Cowichan countered with a Luca Primerano marker — his seventh of the season — to end the frame knotted at one goal apiece.
Alberni got the next two goals and were sitting on a 3-1 lead when Linden Burrett scored on a power-play to cut the lead to one goal with just over six minutes left to play in the game but an empty netter just before the final minute of play propelled the Bulldogs to the 4-2 win.
The following night in Port Alberni Gavin Giesbrecht scored Cowichan's lone goal in the 4-1 loss.
Alberni now sits second in the Coastal conference with 10 wins in 15 games while Cowichan is in the seventh spot with seven wins in the same number of games and won't wait long before meeting the division's early season leader.
The Caps hit the road for a pair in Prince George Nov. 8 and Nov. 9 against the Spruce Kings before a stop in Chilliwack against the conference-leading Chiefs. Cowichan wraps up its road schedule with games in Surrey, and Nanaimo.
"Prince George is a defensive style of team that plays on a small ice surface," Keith noted. "Any shot in the o-zone is a scoring opportunity so we have to carry a shooter-first mentality to have a bounce-back weekend."
Duncan won't see their junior A team play at home again until Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 against the Coquitlam Express and West Kelowna Warriors respectively. Both games start at 7 p.m.
