The Nanaimo Buccaneers doubled up on divisional wins this week.
The city’s junior B hockey club has won five of its last six games after defeating the Oceanside Generals 7-2 on Thursday at the Nanaimo Ice Centre and then following up two nights later with a 5-4 road win against the Comox Valley Glacier Kings.
The week got off to an inauspicious start, as Oceanside scored on its first two shots on goal Thursday before the game turned.
“Other than our start in the first two minutes of the game, I thought we played a pretty complete 58 minutes and I thought we were able to roll lines…” said Dan Lemmon, Buccaneers coach. “Once we got one goal in, the confidence came and we started doing the little things that we had practised all week and that we’ve been practising throughout the season and it was nice to see it pay off.”
Cam Nickerson was chosen first star in his first game with the Bucs, which happened to be against his former team. Lemmon said the newcomer brought emotion and leadership and was a difference-maker. The addition of Nickerson further rounds out Nanaimo’s forward lines.
“The depth we have up front is definitely our strength at the moment and our D’s starting to come around, too,” the coach said. “So if we keep playing like this, we’re going to keep giving ourselves good opportunities to win every night.”
Cole Broadhurst scored two goals in the blowout and Brady Chin, Julius Zhang, Clayton Peace, Patrick Poets and Trent Bell were other scorers. John Hawthorne was perfect in relief, stopping all 23 shots he faced for the win.
On Saturday it was Poets who was the hero, scoring the game-winning goal – his second marker of the night – on the power play with five minutes left. Danny Pion, Zhang and Nickerson were the other scorers and Hawthorne made 26 saves for the win.
GAME ON … The Buccaneers face the Peninsula Panthers on Thursday (Nov. 10) at 7:15 p.m. at the NIC. It’s the first of three games in three nights for the Bucs, who will go on to visit the Glacier Kings on Friday and the Gens on Saturday.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com