The Nanaimo Clippers marked the midpoint of the season with a dominant victory.
The Clips defeated the Cowichan Valley Capitals by a 6-1 score in B.C. Hockey League action Wednesday at Frank Crane Arena.
After the Caps scored the only goal of the first period, the Shipmen struck three times in the second and three more times in the third to skate away with the one-sided win.
“We’ve got some great guys in the room and guys kept us on track and we just played three really strong periods and I think once we got one [goal], it really just opened the floodgates,” said Clippers forward Jake Harris, the game’s first star.
Nanaimo was 4-for-7 on the power play. As the game got out of reach, there was some rough stuff with four fights.
“There was passion and we love that and we’re not afraid of a challenge and we love these kind of games,” Harris said.
He had two goals and an assist and other Nanaimo scorers were Brad Belisle, Cal Babych, Parker Colley and Josh Bourne. Noah Featherstonhaugh Gowe made 28 saves as shots were 43-29 for the home team.
The game was the 29th of a 58-game regular season, so the Clips hit the halfway mark at 15-9-2-3. Wednesday’s win extended Nanaimo’s point streak to 12 games and allowed the team to make it through a whole month without a regulation loss.
“The month of November is moving month every year, because … teams either start to go towards the top of the division, or the other direction, I find,” said Mike Vandekamp, Clippers coach. “So it’s a very important month and it’s always a challenging month.
“Overall, it was a great month for us, but now let’s see what kind of December we can have.”
Harris agreed that the Clippers have built consistency.
“It’s just the mindset of the team,” he said. “We know we can win every night and we just take it shift by shift, period by period, we’ve got to win our shifts and it’s made us successful this month so far.”
GAME ON … The Clippers host the Penticton Vees on Friday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. at Frank Crane Arena. The Clips are also home Sunday, Dec. 3 to take on the Langley Rivermen at 2 p.m. at Frank Crane. For ticket information, call 250-751-0592 or visit www.nanaimoclippers.com.
editor@nanaimobulletin.com
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