For the second straight game, the Campbell River Storm and Victoria Cougars needed overtime to decide a winner in their Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League Final series. But this time, playing in a packed and noisy Rod Brind’Amour Arena Tuesday night (March 22), the Storm came out on top, winning 4-3 and tying the series at 1-1.
Michal Holub scored the game-winner 4:12 into the first overtime, assisted by Carter Hikichi and Josh Coblenz.
The Storm outshot the Cougars 35-31 in the game, and penalties played a key role early, as the first four goals were all scored on the powerplay.
The Storm opened the scoring when Alex Brewer scored a powerplay goal from Alex Rosolowsky 10:50 into the first period. The Cougars took a 2-1 lead before the period ended with powerplay goals from Brett Lervold and John Kretzschmar.
The Storm scored the lone goal of the second period to tie the game, as Coblenz scored at 9:16, again on the powerplay. Rosolowsky and Hikichi earned the assists.
In the third period, the Storm took their second lead of the night when Reece Costain scored just 2:43 into the period, assisted by Keenan Scardina, but Kretzschmar.tied the game with his second goal of the night, scoring with 8:24 left in the game.
The third game in this final series goes Thursday night (March 24) at the Archie Browning Arena in Esquimalt at 7 p.m., and then the Storm return home Friday (March 25) for Game 4, which will start at 7:30 p.m.
Look for more from the game in this Friday’s Mirror.
