The Victoria Cougars scored five power play goals en route to a 9-0 rout of the Kerry Park Islanders in one of two Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League playoff games played on Sunday.
Prior to the game, Brian Harrison, Hockey BC Junior B Director and Myles Parsons, President of the VIJHL were on hand to present Victoria with a total of seven awards.
Sam McMullen won the Doug Morton Trophy (Regular Season Scoring Leader), the Brian Harrison Trophy (Top Forward), and the Jamie Benn Trophy (Most Valuable Player).
Meanwhile, Michael Fretz came away with the Saunders Subaru Community Service Award and the Jamie Robertson Trophy (Most Sportsmanlike). Anthony Ciurro won the Bruce Naylor Trophy (Top Goaltender) while Mark Van Helvoirt and his coaching staff took home the Eddie “The Storm” Kingston Award (Coach of the Year).
Michael Fretz, who was named the game’s first star, scored twice and added an assist.
Nick Lyons, Sam McMullen, Devin Mackey, Marino Somerville, Brett Lervold, Ryan Buse, and PJ Heger also scored for the Cougars.
In net for Victoria was Grant Payne who turned aside all 17 shots directed his way.
It was at 2:34 of the first period when the Cougars opened the scoring. Pinching in from the point, Lyons took a centering pass from Lane Van de Wetering and quickly fired the puck past Leighton Williams for his first goal of the playoffs.
McMullen gave Victoria a 2-0 lead with a power play redirect over the shoulder of Williams at 17:32.
Four seconds after Cody Short stepped out of the penalty box, Mackey scored his second goal in as many games at 1:04 of the second period. Then at 5:38, Somerville banged home a Ryan Vorster rebound from the side of the net to give the Cougars a 4-0 lead.
After the goal, Williams was replaced by Ty Rennie.
Power play goals 64 seconds apart from Lervold and Buse generated more excitement from the crowd at the Archie Browning Sports Centre.
A power play goal from Fretz at 16:42 would make the score 8-0.
Again it would be Fretz who would add another power play goal for good measure at 4:04 of the third period.
The Cougars went 5-for-10 on the power play; meanwhile, Kerry Park finished 0-for-3
The win gave Victoria a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven series. The two teams meet in Mill Bay Tuesday night. A win will mean a sweep of the series for the Cougars.
