The Kerry Park Islanders continue to hunt for their first win of 2015 after falling again last Saturday at home against the Westshore Wolves.
Powered by former Isles Clay Carson, who had two goals and an assist, and Corey Peterson, who added two helpers, the Wolves downed the struggling Isles 5-3. Kerry Park has now lost eight games in a row, including all six games they’ve played since the calendar flipped over.
"We were having trouble getting our forwards going," Isles owner Mark Osmond said. "We got them scoring, and now it’s our defence and our back end that didn’t perform in the last two games." Carson opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal, and the Isles were trailing 2-0 before Kyle Green managed to reply with just 25 seconds left in the period. The Wolves scored twice in the middle stanza to go up 4-1. After Carson scored again 27 seconds into the third, the Isles narrowed the gap with goals from Nick White and Braedan Cross just 12 seconds apart at 12:03 and 12:15, but they were unable to get any closer.
Cross and Green each finished the game with a goal and an assist. Leighton Williams started the game in net and allowed all five goals on 21 shots over 40 minutes and 30 seconds. Ty Rennie played the balance of the contest and stopped both shots he faced.
"It could have gone either way," Osmond said. "It wasn’t due to a lack of effort from our forwards."
Kerry Park is now three points back of the Saanich Braves for third place in the South Division, which Osmond has declared as his goal, and which would set up a first-round playoff battle with Westshore. The fourth place team will face the Victoria Cougars, while the fifth-place team will have to play the fourth-place team from the North Division just to qualify for the playoffs.
The Isles will play the two teams they are battling with for the third, fourth and fifth spots in the North Division this weekend when they visit the Braves this Friday, then host the Peninsula Panthers on Sunday at 3 p.m. "We hope this will be the magic weekend," Osmond said. "If we can win these two games, that will put us back where we want to be."
The Isles had four players in the VIJHL all-star game last Sunday, including Williams, Cross, Matt Osmond, and Lynden Eddy, who suited up for the South Division team that lost 6-4 to the North Division.
"All four played exceptionally well in the all-star game," Mark Osmond said. "We were well-represented by those four players."
