Lake Cowichan 1 Victoria 6
Ben Wetterberg scored twice and the Victoria Cougars led 2-0 and 5-0 by periods on the way to a 6-1 decision over the Lake Cowichan Kraken in Thursday night VIJHL play at Archie Browning Arena.
First star Ethan Davey, third star Luke Reinhart, Kelton Shinde and league leading scorer Joseph Melichar were the other goal scorers for Victoria (37-8-3), which is tied at 77 points with the South Division champion Peninsula Panthers, who have one game left, Friday night in Campbell River. The Panthers hold the tiebreaker.
Melichar leads the VIJHL scoring race with 87 points (43 goals and 44 assists), six ahead of Parker Atkinson and Kansys Seney of Westshore Wolves, who have one more game to play.
Lake Cowichan (14-30-1-2 for 31 points, sixth in North) saw Nicolas Kalinocka be the only Kraken skater to beat second star Jesse Pye, who finished with 14 saves in the Cougars cage. Alfie Blakeley blocked 35 shots in the Kraken net.
Port Alberni 3 Nanaimo 5
First star Jack Barrett had two goals and an assist to spark the Nanaimo Buccaneers to a 5-3 triumph over the Port Alberni Bombers in front of 265 spectators at the Nanaimo Ice Centre.
Nanaimo (33-12-2 for 68 points, first in North) led 2-0 and 4-1 by periods, and had their other goals from Casey Rutland, Dreyton Hayward and Rhys Wilcox. Third star Kai Verbrugge added two assists, and goalie Aaron Pichette had 27 stops.
Port Alberni (17-28-3 for 37 points, fifth in North) had a pair of tallies from second star Joel Dorn and one from Jeremy Gould and received 46 saves from netminder Joseph Naccarato.
