The Victoria Cougars took the bus up the Island to Nanaimo last night to take on the Buccaneers. These are two teams on opposite ends of the Standings.
The Cougars wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard. At the 2 minute mark Connor DeLay took a feed from Jonathon Esposito and ripped a wrist shot over the Bucs starter Steven Reid. The second assist was Parker Jorginson. Two minutes and 6 seconds later Mark Castilla took a shot from the point which Reid stopped but the puck went to Ethan Roworth who slid the puck into the slot and onto the stick of Ben Brant who made no mistake and gave the Cougars a 2-0 lead. At 6:24 Zak Piche made it 3-0. He stole the puck at the Bucs blue line and went in and roofed a backhander over Reid’s shoulder. There was no more scoring in the period.
The Cougars started the second on the power play and off the faceoff Mateo Pivetta took the puck out of the Cougars zone and passed to Jake Watson and headed for the net. Watson returned the puck and Pivetta got a shot on goal that Reid stopped but he was able to bang in the rebound for his first goal of the season at 1:10. At 3:15 and on the power play again the Cougars struck again. Jackson Estey took a feed from Dylan Jessa at the right point, took 2 strides and ripped a wrist shot high to make it 4-0. A little later Castilla passed to Jacob Pang on the left boards and he found Esposito in the slot and Espo ripped a wrist shot low to make it 6-0. That goal was scored at 4:34 and neither team manager to find the back of the net again before the second intermission.
In the third Castilla passed the puck to DeLay at the side of the net who fed Kieran Strange on the left side of the slot and he buried the puck at 10:59. At 13:01 Piche got his second of the night taking a cross ice pass from Jessa and ripping a low wrist shot in from the left boards. The final goal of the game came at 18:08. Ben Brant passed to DeLay at the Cougars blueline and he took the puck deep into the Bucs zone and was able to pass the puck over to Pivetta who backhanded in his second goal of the game. Final score was 9-0 Cougars. Jonah Chambers with his second shutout of the season. Shots on goal were 54-18 in favour of the Cougars.
Player of the game were Isaac McNabb and Jackson Estey for the Cougars
The Cougars next game is Saturday at 7:30 up in Kerry Park followed by a home stand at the Arch on Sunday vs the Panthers at 3:30.
Play-By-Play voice of the Cougars
Social Media Manager
Web Master