The Nanaimo Buccaneers lowered the broom on the Comox Valley Glacier Kings, whipping them 11-3 Tuesday night in Courtenay to complete a four-game sweep of their best-of-seven Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League quarter-final playoff series.
The Bucs will meet the winner of the Campbell River Storm vs. Saanich Braves series. The Braves, who had to win a play-in game to advance to the post-season, are hanging tough against the runaway North Division champion Storm as C.R. leads the series 3-2.
The South Division champion Victoria Cougars swept the Kerry Park Islanders in four straight and await the winner of the Westshore Wolves vs. Peninsula Panthers series. Peninsula leads 3-2.
Tuesday night at the Comox Valley Sports Centre it was do-or-die for the Glacier Kings, and they ended up on the wrong end of those choices.
The Yetis trailed 2-1 after one but were out-shot 21-8 and outscored 4-2 in the second period. Nanaimo scored five goals on six shots in the third to win going away.
Final shots on goal were 43-25 Nanaimo. Alex Orth picked up the win while Marcus Gloss started for the G-Kings and gave up five goals on 33 shots in 37:16 minutes before giving way to Braddock Otton, who allowed six goals on 17 shots in 22:44 minutes.
Third star Will McNamara paced the Bucs’ attack with a big six-point (2g, 4a) performance while first star Jordan Levesque enjoyed a five-point (4g, 1a) outing.
Second star Jake McKenzie tallied a goal and an assist for the Icemen. Ronnie Wilkie and Brandon McReynolds netted the other Comox Valley goals.
Special teams played a big part in the contest as the visitors went 6-for-10 on the power play and also struck for a pair of shorthanded markers. The Yetis went 0-for-4 with the man advantage but did strike for a shorthanded goal.
Nanaimo built a 2-0 lead by the 7:52 mark of the first period before unassisted goals by McReynolds (shorthanded at 8:24 of the first) and McKenzie (at 3:32 of the second) pulled the G-Kings even.
The Bucs then struck for three straight special-team tallies (two by Levesque on the power play and one by Hobin Zinck shorthanded) to open a 5-2 lead by the 12:53 mark of the second stanza.
Wilkie made it 5-3 at 16:28 only to have Levesque zing the strings with his fourth PP goal of the game at 17:41 to make it 6-3 heading into the third.
Despite being out-shot 7-6 in the final frame, the Nanaimo snipers made their shots count. Trent Bell set the tone just eight seconds after the puck drop. Billy Walters and McNamara (on the power play) made it 9-3 by the 7:20 mark. Patrick Poets’ power-play goal put the Bucs into double figures at 12:20, then affiliate player Dawson Heathcote completed the rout at 17:26.
ICE CHIPS The league announced its 2015-16 awards on March 1, and McReynolds was the Bob Saunders Community Leadership Award winner for the G-Kings … one player from each team receives one of the leadership awards …McKenzie led the Yetis in playoff scoring with one goal and two assists … Nanaimo (second in the North Division with a 22-21-1-4 record) outscored Comox Valley (third in the North Division with a 19-25-0-4 record) 22-7 in the playoff series …
