Peninsula 2 Victoria 4
First star Joseph Melichar bagged two goals and an assist to lead the Victoria Cougars to a 4-2 doubling of the South Division leading Peninsula Panthers in Thursday night VIJHL action at Archie Browning Arena.
Melichar, the league’s leading scorer with 30 goals and 37 assists for 67 points, scored the eventual game winner on a power play with 22 seconds left in the second period to give the Cougars a 3-2 lead heading into the final frame. Third star Jordan Ramsay and Ben Wetterberg had the other goals for Victoria (23-8-3 for 49 points, third in the South), who received 37 saves from netminder Jesse Pye.
Peninsula (28-3-1 for 57 points) had their tallies come from second star Alex Sajan, who opened the scoring in the first period, and Oskar Aitken-Salmons in the second. Caden Lentz finished with 26 saves between the Panthers pegs.
Lake Cowichan 5 Nanaimo 7
Late third period goals from first star Bostyn MacDonald, who added two assists, and Dylan Lazaroff were the margin of victory as the Nanaimo Buccaneers got by the Lake Cowichan Kraken 7-5 in front of 275 spectators at the Nanaimo Ice Centre.
Second star Lukas Needham and Jaxin Karst scored twice and Zach Spafford once for Nanaimo (21-10-1 for 43 points, second in the North Division), and Carter Puska backstopped the win with 31 saves. The Bucs led 3-1 and 4-3 by periods.
Lake Cowichan (10-20-1-1 for 22 points, sixth in the North) had two goals from Toby Johnson and singles from third star Jaxon Woodward, Kieran Prichett and Doyun Lee. Alfie Blakeley made 36 stops in the Kraken cage.
