Was it Poets-ic justice?
The Comox Valley Glacier Kings didn’t think so after Patrick Poets’ power-play goal with less than five minutes left to play lifted the Nanaimo Buccaneers to a 5-4 victory in Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League action Nov. 5 in Courtenay.
Poets’ second goal of the game came just four minutes after Jackson Gibson’s second of the game, this one on the power play, had pulled the home team even at 4-4.
The Icemen never led in the contest: it was 1-1 after one and 4-3 Nanaimo after two. The Yetis out-shot the Bucs 30-24, with John Hawthorne the winner and William Cawthorn taking the loss.
Newcomer Matteo Giomo of Courtenay tallied twice for the G-Kings and was named the game’s first star. Second star was Nanaimo’s Trent Bell and Gibson earned third star honours.
The Yetis (13-6-0-1) remain in second place in the North Division, seven points back of the Campbell River Storm (17-4-0-0) and seven up on third-place Nanaimo (10-10-0-0).
They host the Bucs again this Friday, Nov. 11 in a 7:30 p.m. start at Comox Valley Sports Centre Arena #1 then visit the Kerry Park Islanders on Nov. 12.
Icemen Stone Storm
On Nov. 4 the Glacier Kings knocked off the Storm 2-1 in Campbell River. Although out-shot 27-14, the visitors tallied second-period goals just four minutes apart (Cleary Ambrose and first-star Willie Daigneault) to post the win.
Marcus Gloss was the winner and Zak Myrowich took the loss. Former Yeti Sheldon Brett took three minor penalties agains his former teammates. The Storm have also acquired former Comox Valley defenceman Dayton Keith.
Braves Defeat Yetis
Sometimes shots on goal don’t tell the whole story. Sometimes they do.
Hockey historians will one day determine which, if either, was the case Nov. 2 at George Pearkes Arena when the Saanich Braves outshot the Glacier Kings 52-33 en route to a 6-3 VIJHL victory.
On paper, the Wednesday night tilt appeared to be a blowout for the Braves. On the ice, it was much closer than the final three-goal margin indicates.
The Yetis grabbed their only lead of the game at 17:33 of the opening period when Liam Nijhoff netted his fourth goal of the season, a powerplay marker.
The Braves equalized early in the second courtesy of Evan Badry. Then the game opened up, with the teams combining for five goals in the final six minutes of the middle stanza, during which time Saanich outshot Comox Valley 19-9.
Brandon Fushimi put the home team up 2-1 at 14:05, with Zachary Ahola pulling the visitors even just 11 seconds later. Saanich struck at 15:51 (Evan Horvath) and 17:39 (Dale McCabe) to establish a 4-2 lead before G-Kings’ leading scorer Finn Withey zinged the strings at 19:15 to pull the Icemen to within one.
But that was as close as the Yetis would come.
Connor Birmingham made it 5-3 Saanich at 8:04 of the third, then Scott Henderson took the worry out of being close with an empty-netter at 18:46 to secure the win for the South Division-leading Braves.
Marcus Gloss took the loss while Riley Mathieson posted the win. Fushimi (1g, 2a) and Horvath (1g, 2a) led the Braves’ attack while Ahola (1g, 1a) and Jackson Gibson (2a) were the top Yeti point getters.
ICE CHIPS Withey is fourth in league scoring with 27 points (13g, 14a) through 17 games … this year the VIJHL has decided not to host an all-star game but instead two all-star teams will be selected … the teams will be announced at the Wild Card Game, played in mid-February …