The league schedule resumed, but the Nanaimo Buccaneers weren’t ready.
The Bucs lost two games and tied one in their first week of hockey after the holidays. Nanaimo’s junior B squad lost 3-1 to the Peninsula Panthers at home last Tuesday, dropped a 6-1 decision on the road Friday against the Saanich Braves, then tied the Oceanside Generals 6-6 on Saturday in Parksville.
“Off the break it is tough coming back into the swing of things … but I definitely don’t use that as an excuse,” said Derek Bachynski, coach of the Buccaneers. “We didn’t play up to our potential, we needed better goaltending and we just need to play tougher.”
He said his players needed to do a better job getting to the “dirty areas” of the ice and need to be a hard-working team and one that’s tough to play against.
Last week’s opponents were the three teams with the worst records in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League, so the Bucs’ mindset might have been a factor, the coach acknowledged.
“We’ve got to be consistent with playing hard and just concentrate on what we need to do,” Bachynski said. “We can’t play down to teams’ levels and sometimes we do that.”
Jared Fedosoff scored the goal against the Panthers and Carter Turnbull scored against the Braves. In the barnburner at Oceanside, Jordan Levesque had two goals, Turnbull tallied a goal and two assists, Wyatt Meiers had one and one and Fedosoff and Owen Dalman were other scorers.
GAME ON … The Bucs play just one game this week, as they host the first-place Campbell River Storm on Thursday (Jan. 8) at 7:15 p.m. at the Nanaimo Ice Centre.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com