Victoria 8 Oceanside 2
League leading scorer Joseph Melichar had three goals and an assist and was named third star while leading the Victoria Cougars to a decisive 8-2 win over the Oceanside Generals in Sunday VIJHL play in front of 420 fans at Oceanside Place.
Victoria (24-8-3 for 51 points, third in South Division) led from wire to wire with 2-0 and 4-1 leads by period. Melichar, the game’s first star, is scoring at a goal a game pace with 33 goals and 38 assists for 71 points in the VIJHL scoring race.
First star Cole Patterson and Kelton Shinde both had a goal and two assists as they returned to the Cougars lineup in their first games of the season, with Victoria’s other goals coming from Jordan Ramsay with two goals and an assist, and Tyler Delli-Carri with one goal. James Clarke had an assist and was named second star, and goalie Lane Maarhuis stopped 23 shots for the win.
North Division leading Oceanside (24-11-1 for 49 points) was missing several players due to illness, and had their goals from Levi Green and Braylon Becker. Netminders Andreas Bylerius and Levi Hollatz combined for 30 saves in the Generals net.
Port Alberni 3 Campbell River 5
Campbell River Storm never trailed while subduing the host Campbell River Storm 5-3 as 617 spectators witnessed the contest at Rod Brind’Amour Arena.
First star Elliott Turgeon with the eventual game winner, Noah Spencer, Tom Marguet, Thomas Curri and Jack Smith into an empty net with one second remaining had the goals for Campbell River (18-17-1 for 37 points, fourth in the North), which led 2-1 and 4-2 by periods and received a 36 save, third star effort from goalie William Talbot.
Scoring for Port Alberni (13-21-2 for 28 points, fifth in the North) were Chase Pouchnik, Kash Nicklin and Makhi Wandler, as Quinn Bouchard added two assists and was named second star. Goaltender Joseph Naccarato finished with 43 saves.
Penticton 10 Lake Cowichan 2
South Division leading Peninsula Panthers leapt to 4-0 and 6-0 period leads en-route to a 10-2 takedown of the Lake Cowichan Kraken at the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena.
First star Logan Barnes had two goals, and singles came from second star Alex Sajan, Carson Harris, Brendan Williams, Ben Rowan, Luke Christensen, Oskar Aitken-Salmons, Jacob Eddy and Jacob Caron for Peninsula (30-3-1 for 61 points), and Caden Lentz blocked 24 shots between the Panthers pipes.
Third star Viktor Dudenkov had both goals for Lake Cowichan (11-21-1-1 for 24 points, sixth in North), as goalies Evgeni Tkachenko and Alfie Blakeley stopped 35 shots between them.
