Buccaneers shut out playoff opponent
The Nanaimo Buccaneers' second playoff game was a little bit closer, except on the scoreboard.
The city's Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League team defeated the Kerry Park Islanders 4-0 in Game 2 of the best-of-seven series Thursday at the Nanaimo Ice Centre.
"We played as well as we needed to…" said Brad Knight, Bucs coach. "We scored goals on a timely basis; we got good goaltending. We were very fortunate that we snuck that win out by just being a better skilled club."
Lee Orpen scored in the first period and Garrett Dunlop added a power-play marker in the second to give the home team a 2-0 edge going into the third. The Islanders gained some momentum midway through the third period but Buccaneers goalie Cam Large made a number of good saves to maintain his team's lead.
With five minutes left in the game, Will McNamara scored a wraparound goal on the power play to make it 3-0. Tyson Harvey added another PP goal late and Dan Foglietta scored a few seconds after that on a short-handed breakaway but the goal was negated by a too-many-men-on-the-ice call.
Large was selected first star for his shutout performance as shots ended up 24-24.
The Bucs think they'll need to bring better effort as the series moves now to the Islanders' home rink.
"It's good to get the 2-0 series lead heading into their barn…" said Shane Dial, Buccaneers forward. "[We'll] make sure we keep the pressure on them and don't give them anything."
ICE CHIPS … The Buccaneers and Islanders play Game 3 of their series Saturday (Feb. 23) at Kerry Park Arena at Mill Bay. Faceoff is 7:30 p.m. Game 4 will be Tuesday, also on the road … The Bucs, already missing defenceman Jake Calverley to injury, were also without forwards Lynden Eddy and Riel Gibson on Thursday. Gibson is day-to-day but Eddy could be out for a few weeks. Derian Hamilton skated on the forward lines Thursday.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com
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