The Nanaimo Buccaneers are excited after knocking off the league’s best team – the trick now will be not to get overexcited.
The Bucs are flying high after a 1-0 overtime win against the Victoria Cougars on the road Sunday in Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League play.
“It’s a tough place to go in and get two points and we broke their 23-game winning streak and [it’s] the first time that they’ve lost at home this year,” said Dan Lemmon, Buccaneers coach.
He praised the performance of goalie Alex Orth, the VIJHL’s Player of the Week after the 37-save shutout.
“He was just calm in the net and he had really good rebound control,” the coach said.
Trent Bell was the overtime hero in the win.
“Trent just used that powerful burst of speed that we’ve seen so much this year to get ahead of the D-men,” Lemmon said.
The Buccaneers celebrated the win – lots of players on the team had never defeated the Cougars – and will now try to build on it. The Bucs have come up with big wins on other nights this season, too, but haven’t been able to parlay that into consistency.
“It’s hard for us to manage our highs and lows,” Lemmon said. “We kind of come out flat the next game. So that’s something we talked about at practice this week.”
GAME ON … The Bucs host the Saanich Braves on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. at the Nanaimo Ice Centre.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com
