The Cowichan Valley Capitals were shut out twice during their three-game road trip last weekend, but it was Cowichan’s own goalie who stole the spotlight.
Michael Corson made two starts on the trip, and was named first star both times.
Over two starts and one relief appearance, Corson stopped 101 of the 104 shots he faced, surrendering two goals on the powerplay and one shorthanded.
Against the league-leading Vernon Vipers on Saturday, he even outshone the hometown goalie who had a perfect night.
“Something I’ve never seen before, our goalie was named first star in a loss on the road,” Cowichan head coach Brian Passmore noted. “There were 2,200 people at the game, and they gave him a standing ovation. They were cheering harder for our guy than they were for their own guy, who got the shutout.”
The road trip featured a ton of travel, with all three games against teams sitting first or second in their respective divisions.
The first stop on the journey was Prince George, where the Caps edged the Mainland Division-leading Spruce Kings 2-1, earning their second road win of the season.
“It was a typical road game, not too pretty,” Passmore said. “We played a defensive style. There were a lot of whistles. It kind of played into our hands.”
One-time Cowichan AP Ben Brar opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal in the first period, but Azzaro Tinling got the Caps on the board with his 10th of the season just 31 seconds into the middle frame. Jonathan Stein used his speed to beat a Prince George defender one-on-one, and potted the eventual game-winner at 14:38 of the third.
The Caps were 0-for-3 on the powerplay, but held the Spruce Kings to 0-for-4. Corson stopped 38 of 39 shots, while the Caps scored their two goals on just 15 shots.
“It was just a good team win, even though we were outshot by quite a bit — although I’m not sure the shot counts were quite accurate — we had some quality scoring chances,” Passmore commented. “The shots we had were good scoring chances. If you can get seven or eight of those, and score on two or three of them, that’s good, on the road, at least.”
In Vernon on Saturday, the Vipers were playing their first home game since their longtime owner, Duncan Wray, died suddenly on Jan. 11 — his 68th birthday — and emotions were running high. The team played a tribute video to Wray prior to the game. During the pregame skate, the Caps broke a pane of glass with a shot, and had to leave the ice while it was repaired, then ended up with only five minutes of proper warmup time.
Still, they carried a scoreless tie into the 50th minute of the game, when the Vipers notched a powerplay goal on the last of their six extra-man opportunities.
“If I’m someone looking at that game as a spectator, I think they had the puck for about 75 per cent of the game,” Passmore said. “When you don’t have the puck, you’re going to take some penalties.”
Vernon added an empty-netter with 34 seconds left to play. Corson stopped 49 of 50 shots, garnering the cheers of the hometown crowd even as Vipers netminder Ty Taylor had a 28-save shutout.
Passmore was impressed with what the Vipers brought to the rink.
“Out of all the teams I’ve seen in the league, I think they’re the deepest,” he said. “They have four lines that keep coming at you with speed.”
On Sunday, the Caps got to Surrey just in time for their game against the Eagles, and never recovered from their slow start, eventually losing 7-0.
J.J. Pichette started, allowed six goals on 29 shots over 32:53, and Corson came in for the last 27:07, stopping 14 of 15 shots. Mario Cavaliere made 43 saves in the Surrey net for his second shutout in three nights. The Caps went 0-for-5 on the powerplay, while the Eagles were 3-for-9.
“I think it was a mental thing,” Passmore said. “They were just not focused to compete that day. Guys were thinking it would be hard even before they got out there.”
The Capitals’ next three games are all against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, who they are trying to catch for fourth place in the Island Division. The Caps trail the Bulldogs by 10 points right now, but could make up some big ground during the home-and-home-and-home series.
“It’s huge,” Passmore acknowledged. “We’re trying to stay close. We’ve picked up points, but not as many as we would have liked. We’re still going to take it one game at a time. We’ve had some good games against them this year. If we can win these games, we will be right in the mix. If we decide to go one win and two losses against them, the picture is going to be grey.”
The teams play at the Island Savings Centre on Wednesday at 7 p.m., in Port Alberni on Friday, then at the ISC again on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Saturday’s game — which was 85 per cent sold out as of Monday — will be part of the Rogers Hometown Hockey festivities in the Cowichan Valley, with host Tara Slone dropping the ceremonial opening faceoff. All fans are encouraged to wear red to the game. For more about Hometown Hockey, see pages 11-18.