Playing without three of their top four scorers for three games didn’t seem to hurt the Kerry Park Islanders.
The Isles won all three of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League games they played in the absence of Parker Ellis, Kyle Peck and Jarret Malloch, playing some of their most inspired hockey of the year over that stretch.
“There’s been a different dynamic, to say the least,” Islanders owner Mark Osmond agreed.
Ellis was given an in-house suspension prior to the team’s Jan. 27 game against the Campbell River Storm. Unhappy with that situation, Peck and Malloch sat that game out in protest. After further discussion, Ellis’s suspension was extended for the remainder of the current season, while Peck and Malloch were suspended for the next two games, and will be eligible to return this Saturday.
“We had a chat with them,” Osmond explained. “They made that decision based on friendship. They didn’t condone his actions, but they didn’t agree with what we did. There were probably better ways for them to go about it.
“I think, in the long term, it benefitted the team. In the short term, it could have hurt us, but it didn’t.”
The Isles beat the Storm in overtime in the Jan. 27 game, then went on to defeat the Victoria Cougars 3-2 last Thursday and Peninsula Panthers 4-2 on Saturday.
On Thursday, the Isles went up 2-0 in the first period on a powerplay goal by Brandon Wilson and a shorthanded marker by Tanner Tiel. Joe Leakey added an even-strength goal in the second, which stood up as the game-winner after Sean Patten scored two for the Cougars in the third. Wilson finished the game with a goal and an assist, Chase Anderson stopped 34 of 46 shots in the Kerry Park net, and the Isles went 1-for-4 on the powerplay, while holding the Cougars without a goal on six chances.
Saturday’s victory was even more remarkable as the Isles took the ice without Keenan Eddy, their captain and the other of their top four leading scorers, and veteran defenceman Tanner Browne, who both had the flu.
“The boys just did what they could for each other,” Osmond said. “Chase made some great saves.”
Brandon McClintick got Kerry Park going with a powerplay goal in the first period. The Panthers replied with a pair of powerplay goals in the second, but blueliner Connor Bissett tied it up with just over four minutes left, and Evan Easton and Braydon Nelson scored in the third.
Easton and Bissett both finished with a goal and an assist, Avery Nielsen-Webb had three helpers after recording just two assists in his previous 39 games, and Anderson stopped 36 of 38 Peninsula shots. The Isles went 1-for-3 on the powerplay, and the Panthers were 2-for-9.
The two wins last week pushed the Isles into second place in the South Division, three points back of the first-place Saanich Braves and two ahead of the third-place Cougars, although both teams have two games in hand on the Isles. As Nanaimo and Campbell River can’t be caught at this point, the top two teams in the South will be seeded third and fourth in the playoffs.
“I think maybe ending up first [in the South] would be a bit of a stretch. It’s been a funny season. We could end up facing Saanich, Westshore or Victoria in the first round. I don’t mind playing any of those teams; I like our chances. It would be nice to get home-ice advantage, but we’ll see.”
The Isles have just one game this weekend as they host the Braves on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.