Facing the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League’s two division leaders on back-to-back nights this past weekend, the Kerry Park Islanders showed they have the capacity to be giant-killers.
Although the Isles ended the weekend without a win, they came within seconds of upsetting the undefeated Saanich Braves on Friday and mounted a comeback that fell just short against the Campbell River Storm on Saturday.
The Isles led the hometown Braves with less than a minute remaining in regulation on Friday, only to fall 4-3 in overtime.
“Once again the boys showed resilience,” Kerry Park head coach Aaron Spotts said. “They played a full 60-minute game against the top team in B.C. It was a really good 60 minutes with a short lineup.”
Neither team scored in the first period, but the Braves needed just 34 seconds to get on the board in the second, and then a shorthanded goal by Duncan product Cam LeSergent made it 2-0. Brandon McClintick got the Isles back within one before the period was over.
Isaac Leik made it 2-2 at 6:52, then Tanner Tiel gave the Isles the lead with 47 seconds left to play. The Braves pulled their goalie for the extra attacker and managed to score once more to force overtime. The net was off for a few seconds in overtime when the Braves scored, and although the head referee initially waved off the goal, he changed his mind after consulting his fellow officials.
Rett Rook faced 39 shots in the Kerry Park net, but turned aside 35, while Chris Combiadakis stopped 24 of 27 shots in the Braves’ end.
Back home the next night, the Isles took some time to get back to the level of hockey they played on Friday, and Saturday’s result was a 6-4 loss to the Campbell River Storm.
“We’ve talked before about how when you have an emotional game the night before, it’s hard to get up the next night,” Spotts noted.
The Storm scored three times in the first period and were up 4-0 before Dawson Blanchette’s powerplay goal got the Isles on the board with 20 seconds left in the second. The Isles continued to battle back with a goal from McClintick at 8:02 of the third and a powerplay marker from Romaeo D’Intino at 15:03 to cut the lead to one.
Campbell River restored the two-goal lead 47 seconds later, but Tanner Tiel made it 5-4 with a minute remaining in regulation. The Isles pulled goalie Charles-Olivier Lepage in a bid to draw even, but the Storm sent the puck into the empty net to ice their victory.
Tiel finished the game with a goal and two assists, while Lepage had 30 saves, 10 more than Storm netminder Aaron de Kok.
Spotts liked the way his team kept going even when Campbell River was ahead by four.
“They could have packed it in,” he said. “The kids showed a lot of heart. We had a lot of momentum in the third. I thought we carried most of the play.”
Added to a pair of wins on the first weekend of the month, the last two games showed again that the Isles are moving in the right direction on the ice.
“This team has shown a lot of chemistry through the whole year,” Spotts said. “We want to work hard and get better. I keep telling them, stay the course and the wins will keep coming. We want to be a team, come playoff time, that’s in the groove.”
Thirteen games into a 48-game season, the Isles are “not behind schedule,” Spotts stated.
“We’re just worried about what the next game is,” he said. “And not where we’re going to be come the end of the year.”
Having faced the division leaders last weekend, the Isles will next meet the second-place clubs as they visit the Victoria Cougars on Friday and host the Nanaimo Buccaneers on Saturday.
“They’re two tough teams,” Spotts said. “If we come out and play our game the whole game, we can look for a couple of wins.”