The Cougars have, for better or worse, played a number of weaker teams in a row recently. Coming into Thursday night’s game had the Cougars on a 6 game streak. The victims were Comox, Peninsula, Lake Cowichan, Nanaimo, Kerry Park twice. The first two wins were against top teams in the Glacier Kings and Panthers. But the next 4 wins saw the Cougars completely dominate the weaker opponents.
Thursday wasn’t much different. The Westshore Wolves visited the Arch for the first time this season with only 7 wins on the year and sitting second to last in the South. The Cougars walked out of that game with a 6-1 win.
It wasn’t until Friday night that the Cougars faced a true challenge. The last team to beat the Cougars was the very same Campbell River Storm that they faced at the Brindy Friday.
After several weak teams in a row the Storm were the first challenge the Cougars faced since taking on the Panthers 3 weeks earlier. Was the Cougars dominance just a side-effect of lower ranked teams? Well, the Storm definitely didn’t get rolled over like the Cougars have done recently.
The game was basically dead even for the entire contest. Splitting goals in the 1st period, with Jacob Pang getting 2 of his own, and shots were only 1 different.
They against split goals and shots were close again in the 2nd frame. The big game changer was Brady Estabrook scoring just 18 seconds into the 3rd. Ty Smith added another one at 11:23 and the Storm held a 5-3 lead late.
With a clutch goal just seconds later Jacob Batson got the Cougars to within 1 goal and the brought the momentum to the Cougars side. The Strom defence made all the difference. Victoria managed several serious scoring chances in the final minutes but the Storm wall held.
The Cougars take on the Wolves again this Thursday and hope to start a new streak.
Play-By-Play voice of the Cougars
Social Media Manager
Web Master