You win some, you lose some, and the Kerry Park Islanders were reminded of that the hard way Tuesday night when they faced the league leading Comox Valley Glacier Kings.
“Comox dominated the whole game,” admitted head coach Brian Passmore. “Nothing nice to say about that one.”
The Isles got behind early, allowing three first period goals with no response.
Midway through the second period the Glacier Kings added to their lead before Kerry Park’s Henry Toomer got his team on the board with a goal assisted by Keagen Abbott and Eric Stinson.
Comox replied but Carson Brown struck again from Lukas Tokic and Aleko Sdrakas to make it a 5-2 score, however that’s as close as the Isles would get as Comox went on to win by a convincing 7-2 tally.
“We need to hit the reset after that game,” Passmore said. “Back to work at practice to improve our habits, competing, checking and defending. We have not been sharp lately and it’s time to tighten up.”
The Isles had shown their determination on Thursday, Feb. 9 at the Nanaimo Ice Centre when they found themselves down by two goals midway through the first period.
The Bucaneers, who had lost their last 10, seemed to get a jump on Kerry Park, but the comeback began as the first period carried on.
At 11:10 Bryce Burnett scored his 10th on the year with helpers from Jack Strom and Colby Robinson.
The goal would eventually send the Islanders into the first intermission down by just one. But before the period ended, a bit of a melee saw three 10-minute misconducts assigned to each team along with one two-minute roughing penalty to the Isles and two of the same to the Bucs.
Both teams had a chance to regroup during the break.
Nanaimo didn’t go down easily, however. A goal just over two minutes into the middle frame left Kerry Park down by two again. It took the Isles quite some time to find the gas pedal but when they did, they made the most of it.
At 10:15 of the second period Strom found Nathan Da Silva to make the score 3-2 Nanaimo. With 20 seconds left in the period, Lukas Tokic converted on a powerplay goal from Aleki Sdrakas and Ty Nakatsu.
Headed into the third period tied, Burnett and Sdrakas took turns — one scoring, the other assisting with Sdrakas’s goal from Burnett into the empty net with two minutes left to play. Comeback completed, the Isles won by a 5-3 score.
“Against Nanaimo we played a good game,” Passmore said. “We got behind on three mistakes and stuck with it the whole game. We have a road game in Campbell River on Friday and home Saturday against Lake Cowichan this weekend,” he added. “We are looking to get some bodies back as we have been banged up lately with injuries.”