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Cowichan Capitals hope to regain confidence after losses

Caps drop two at home against division rivals
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Cowichan Valley Capitals goalie Jack Grant moves to knock aside a stick flying by during his team’s loss to the Powell River Kings at the Island Savings Centre on Friday night. (Kevin Rothbauer/Citizen)

Back-to-back losses in their own arena have the Cowichan Valley Capitals looking for answers.

The Caps had won three straight hockey games at the Island Savings Centre before hosting the top two teams in the Island Division on the weekend. They were beaten 5-2 by the second-place Powell River Kings on Friday, then lost 5-0 to the Victoria Grizzlies on Saturday.

“I think right now there’s a couple of things,” Capitals head coach Mike Vandekamp said. “We’re up against it right now. We’ve got four good forwards [Vincent Millette, Jordan Robert, Lucas Vanroboys and Ryan Moon] not playing.

“Maybe we lack confidence. When something happens, maybe they’re like, ‘oh damn, here we go again.’ We need to get over that. You could maybe say we’re a little bit fragile. We’ve gotta work ourselves out of that.”

In both games, Vandekamp pointed out, the result could be traced to a specific few minutes in which the game got out of Cowichan’s control. On Friday, Powell River scored three powerplay goals over six and a half minutes to go ahead 3-1 in the second period. On Saturday, the Grizzlies scored four times in less than five minutes, also in the second period.

“The games got away from us in a really short span,” Vandekamp said. “Saturday, we probably played 55 good minutes. Unfortunately, we played five really bad ones.”

Paul Selleck staked the Caps to a 1-0 lead in the first period on Friday, but the Kings scored the next five goals — including the three second-period powerplay markers — before Dimitri Mikrogiannakis notched a powerplay goal for the home team.

Mikrogiannakis finished the night with two points, giving him 11 on the season. Jack Grant made 23 saves in the Cowichan net, while Mitch Adamyk stopped 30 of 32 shots in the Powell River net. The Caps were 1-for-8 on the powerplay, while the Kings went 3-for-5.

Victoria goalie Kurtis Chapman stopped all 37 shots on Saturday, while Grant allowed five goals on 33 shots.

The Caps remain tied with the Surrey Eagles at the bottom of the B.C. Hockey league standings, although the Eagles have played three more games than the Caps. Vandekamp is trying his best to keep morale high despite the struggles.

“It’s one thing to lose games, and obviously we’ve lost more than we’ve won at this point, but we don’t want to behave like losers,” he said. “We have to make sure we behave like winners and prepare for every game like we expect to win.”

This is Vandekamp’s first season behind the bench of the team that finished last in the league in 2017-18, and only two players — forward Cold Broadhurst and defenceman Boo Grist — remain on the roster from last year, so it’s still almost like starting from scratch, he suggested.

“We’re trying to create a culture,” the coach said. “We’re not trying to change a culture, because we don’t have one. We’ve brought all these players together and we’re in the stage of trying to unite them.

“It’s a long season and we have a long future ahead of us. We want to be confident and be better.”

Having four top-six forwards on the shelf isn’t benefiting the team right now, but it could end up paying off down the road.

“I think in the long term, it’s probably going to help us, guys having to play and play lots getting experience,” Vandekamp said. “When we get into the second half, down the stretch to the final 20 games, I think we could be strong.”

The Caps visited the Alberni Valley Bulldogs on Tuesday night (check cowichanvalleycitizen.com for results), and will visit the Nanaimo Clippers on Friday before hosting the Clippers next Tuesday at 7 p.m. as they continue a string of eight straight games against division opponents.

“Those big games against the most immediate teams in front of us in the standings,” Vandekamp said. “The next three games are big games.”



Kevin Rothbauer

About the Author: Kevin Rothbauer

Kevin Rothbauer is the sports reporter for the Cowichan Valley Citizen
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