The Nanaimo Buccaneers are being tested by their opponents, and also by the elements.
The Bucs trail their best-of-seven playoff series with the Campbell River Storm two games to one and Game 4 had to be postponed due to snowy highways on Sunday.
The Buccaneers won the first game of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League quarterfinal series 4-1 on Wednesday up Island, but the Storm won the next day’s rematch 4-0 at the Nanaimo Ice Centre and then took Game 3, too, by a 5-1 score on Friday in Campbell River.
The first game saw Bucs goalie Jackson Jane made 43 saves for the win, getting goal support from Shane Dial, Garrett Brandsma, David Osborne and Johnathan Speer.
The next day Jane suffered the ‘L’ as shots were 28-27 in favour of the Storm.
Campbell River outshot Nanaimo 37-33 in the third game of the series, with Jane in goal for the Bucs and Mikko Keski-Pukkila scoring the only goal for the good guys.
Game 4 was supposed to be a matinee at the NIC on Sunday, but instead the series schedule is getting shuffled.
The next game is still Wednesday (Feb. 26) in Campbell River, as originally planned, but it will be Game 4 instead of Game 5. The Buccaneers host Game 5 on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. at the NIC. Game 6, if necessary, would be Friday up Island and Nanaimo would host a Game 7, though scheduling hasn’t yet been determined.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com
