The Bucs have a lead in their best-of-seven series.
The junior B Nanaimo Buccaneers defeated the Comox Valley Glacier Kings by a 3-2 score in Game 3 on Monday night at the Nanaimo Ice Centre.
“It’s playoffs; every game’s going to be close…” said Nolan Richardson, Buccaneers alternate captain. “If we can squeak anything out, we’ll take it.”
Richardson scored a pair of second-period goals for Nanaimo, including one with 10 seconds left in the frame that stood up as the game-winner. Dawson Heathcote also tallied for the Bucs and John Hawthorne was the winning goalie with 32 saves.
Dan Lemmon, Buccaneers coach, said his team had some discipline trouble, but tidied up that aspect of its game in the third and also played smart with the lead, sticking to the game plan and not letting the Glacier Kings get easy entries into the attacking zone.
“Tiny little things are the difference between winning and losing,” Lemmon said.
He pointed out that all the games in the series have been close. His team knows what it takes to win playoff games now, but also knows how hard it will be, the coach said.
“It’s just about seeing that effort every night and the decision-making getting better as we go along in playoffs here,” Lemmon said. “So far I think we’ve made a couple good adjustments and we’ve just got to keep getting better from here.”
Comox got goals from Scott Rademaker and Jake McKenzie and goalie Marcus Gloss made 34 saves in defeat.
GAME ON … Game 4 is Tuesday (Feb. 28) at 7 p.m. at the Comox Valley Sports Centre. Game 5 will be Thursday at 7:15 p.m. at the NIC.
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