And just like that the South Division lead changes twice in two days.
The Saanich Braves defeated the Victoria Cougars Thursday night in Victoria’s home rink at Archie Browning Arena. The final score was 4-2. With the proverbial four-pointer, the Braves passed the Cougars while having a single game in-hand.
The following night, Friday, both teams were in action again, this time the Cougars were visiting the cellar-dwelling Peninsula Panthers and the Braves were hosting the North Division-leading Campbell River Storm.
As expected the Cougars won and the Braves lost. Although the Braves are capable of beating the Storm, it just didn’t happen Friday.
The Cougars won 7-2 and the Braves lost 7-3. The Cougars are again back on top of the South Division.
The Cougars’ Tyler Vanuden earned first star honours for scoring a hat trick and earned an assist, otherwise the scoring was spread around. The Cougars blasted 41 shots at goaltender Shawn Parkinson.
The Panthers occupy the basement of the South Division with a record of 3-16-0-3. It didn’t help they were playing a first place team, and were penalized more than twice as much as the visitors, but they need to start winning immediately.
Justin Anderson stopped 22 of 24 for shots for the win.
Over at Pearkes Arena, there was a storm taking place, with the visitors from Campbell River throwing 18 shots at Riley Mathieson during the first period alone and a total of 46 during the game. They showed up ready to shoot the lights out of the Arena and they did just that.
Josh Harvey for the Storm earned three points on the night, meanwhile nine other Storm players got on the score sheet.
Nick Guerra scored two powerplay goals on seven man advantages, while the Storm went two for six on the night.
Guerra continues to lead the league in goals and points with a very lopsided 29 goals and 15 assists for 44 points. On goals alone, Guerra would be in fourth place in the league points race.