The Kerry Park Islanders bounced back from a weekend they’d like to forget with one of their most impressive wins of the season.
After back-to-back losses against the Saanich Braves on Friday and Saturday — which owner Mark Osmond described was “probably the worst I’ve seen from them all year” — the Isles defied all shot counts and powerplay advantages to beat the Victoria Cougars 2-0 on Tuesday.
Chase Anderson made 47 saves on Tuesday for his third shutout of the season and the fifth of his career, while his teammates generated 22 shots on Patrick Oestermann in the Victoria net. The Isles also stymied all five of the Cougars’ powerplay chances, while the officials neglected to give the Isles any man-advantages of their own.
Ty Smith scored the only goal his team needed at 7:07 of the first period, from Brandon Wilson and Keenan Eddy. Eddy added an empty-netter with two seconds left to play, assisted by Cordell Boyko.
Kerry Park was missing four key players: defenceman Connor Bissett and forward Brandon McClintick were out with injuries, and Will Connors and Braydon Nelson were sitting out suspensions from the weekend games. Osmond was still pleased with the performance of the available players.
“I thought they came together as a team,” he said. “It could be the TSN Turning Point of the season.”
Connors was missing his second game of a two-game suspension he received on Friday for his third head-contact minor of the season, which comes with an automatic ban. Nelson was given two games for “harassment of officials” in Saturday’s game, and was also prohibited from playing in the VIJHL Prospects Game on Sunday.
In other roster news, the Isles have lost forward Samson McLean for at least the rest of this season as he heals from a variety of injuries. In his place, the team signed forward Isaac Leik from the midget Cowichan Valley Capitals. Leik had already played 10 games for Kerry Park as an AP, scoring two goals.
The Isles visited the league-leading Nanaimo Buccaneers on Thursday, and will play host to the Comox Valley Glacier Kings on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.