The Kerry Park Islanders may not have completed a comeback against the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League-leading Campbell River Storm last Saturday night, but they managed to salvage some pride in a 5-3 loss.
Eric LeBlanc scored twice to spur a three-goal third-period rally for the Islanders, who made things interesting after the Storm scored five times in the second period, including three powerplay goals, to take a commanding 5-0 lead.
Both set up by Islanders sophomore Caleb Franklin, LeBlanc’s goals were sandwiched around a powerplay marker by Will Connors.
“The first period was really fast, fun hockey,” Islanders owner Mark Osmond said. “It was some of the best hockey I’ve seen from the team all season. In the second period, we got into penalty trouble. They’re young; they’ve got to learn to keep their mouths shut, just get on and play. Between the second and third, we told them to get out and win the third, period, and they did. We had a good third. We can beat that team, but we have to play 60 minutes. If we play 60 minutes, we can beat anybody.”
Chase Anderson got the call in the Kerry Park net, and was perfect in the first and third periods, making a total of 21 saves, while he allowed five goals on 17 shots in the second. The Isles were outshot 38-21 on the night, and managed to put just one puck on net in the middle frame.
The Isles have slipped into fourth place in the South Division. Both Kerry Park and Westshore have 13 points, but the Wolves have played 13 games to the Islanders’ 14. The Isles will host the Wolves this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. after visiting the Peninsula Panthers on Friday night.
Last time the Isles played Westshore, on Oct. 19, they ended up on the wrong side of a 7-0 rout, and Osmond expects a better result this time.
“Even when we were down 3-0 against Westshore, I thought we were still going to win the game,” he said.