Victoria 3 Comox Valley 2 (OT)
Joseph Melichar scored at 2:46 of overtime to enable the Victoria Cougars to claim a 3-2 victory over the Comox Valley Glacier Kings in Saturday night VIJHL play at the Comox Valley Sports Centre.
Victoria (29-8-3 for 61 points), led 1-0 in the first period on a goal by Ben Wetterberg and 2-0 early in the second when third star Grady Slugget scored, but Comox Valley (20-15-5-1 for 46 points, third in the North Division) cut the lead in half when Leon Mikhalchuk scored a powerplay midway through the sandwich frame and with less than two minutes left in the third, Sheldon Alexander tied the game for the hosts, sending the contest into overtime.
First star of the contest was Victoria netminder Finn Wilson with 33 saves, with former Cougar Lane Maarhuis taking second star honours with 30 stops in the Yetis cage.
Westshore 4 Oceanside 3
Parker Atkinson’s power play goal with 4:15 left in the third period helped the Westshore Wolves nip the Oceanside Generals as 398 people watched at Oceanside Place.
Oceanside (25-15-1 for 51 points, second in the North Division), led 1-0 in the first on Hunter Toth’s goal and held a 2-0 led in the second when third star Lachlan Sucher tallied before the Wolves romped back with three straight goals by Sam Spring, Tyson Schamehorn and Elijah Kim to hold a 3-2 lead heading into the third.
Braylon Becker evened the score for Oceanside at 11:48 of the third before Atkinson’s winner.
Logan Duncan had two assists for Oceanside and was named first star, with Levi Hollatz finishing with 42 saves in the Generals goal. Kansys Seney had three assists and was second star, with Luca Vanzo taking the win with 35 saves between the Wolves pipes.
The win kept Westshore (28-8-4 for 60 points) one point behind Victoria for second spot in the South.
Peninsula 8 Kerry Park 3
A hat trick from first star Lucas Ananias fueled the Peninsula Panthers’ 8-3 downing of the Kerry Park Islanders in front of 120 fans at Kerry Park Arena.
Peninsula (32-5-2 for 66 points, first in the South) led 3-1 and 4-1 by periods and had their other goals come from Jacob Eddy, Liam Byrne, Markus Nichols, Oskar Aitken-Salmons and Jason Sekulich. Third star Jacob Caron had two assists. Colton Pye had to only make four saves in the Peninsula net.
Kerry Park (2-39) markers came from Parker Lawrence, Tomasz Ptaszek and Hudson Boulanger, and goalie Alex Doyer finished a busy night with 43 saves. Reece Phillips had an assist and was named first star.
