The Victoria Cougars proved once again that a two-goal lead is never safe.
Wade Johnson, Michael Fretz, and Ryan Carson scored third period goals to help propel Victoria to a 4-2 win over the Nanaimo Buccaneers Oct. 9.
Nanaimo (8-3-0-1) led 1-0 after one period and 2-1 after two.
Fretz, who was named the game’s first star, scored the contest winner from Sam McMullen and Johnson with 53.7 seconds remaining in regulation.
Oct. 5, the Cougars rallied from a two-goal deficit midway through the third period before surprising the Kerry Park Islanders 4-3 in overtime.
The Nanaimo Ice Centre was abuzz in anticipation of Thursday night’s game and even more so after goals by Carter Turnbull and Chad Bell put the Buccaneers up 2-0.
Turnbull scored his fifth of the season at 3:55 of the first period during an odd-man rush. Then at 16:13 of the middle frame, Nolan Richardson fed the puck out front to Bell who banged it home from in close.
Victoria (9-1-1-0), who won its sixth game in a row, did not get on the board until the 18:09 mark when John Kretzschmar scored from the top of the faceoff circle. Watching the proceedings from the sin bin was Owen Dalman who had 29 seconds remaining in his tripping penalty.
Another penalty, this time to Jared Fedosoff, put the Cougars on an early third period power play. 71 seconds later, Johnson tied the game after pouncing all over a Robert Zadra rebound for his fourth goal of the season at 2:45.
Extending his point streak to 10 games was Zadra.
After Fretz put Victoria ahead by good, Carson added an empty netter with 35.9 seconds remaining in regulation.
Cougars’ goaltender Grant Payne, who was making his third straight start in net, turned aside 21 shots for his fifth win of the season.
Greg Maggio made 25 saves in the loss.
Victoria went 2-for-6 on the power play while the Buccaneers went 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
The Cougars played the Westshore Wolves last Wednesday. Results from that game were unavailable at presstime.
editor@vicnews.com
