Tyson Taylor
sports@pqbnews.com
Liam Giroux stood on his head Saturday night to help the Save-On-Foods Oceanside Generals split their home and home series with the Comox Valley Glacier Kings over the weekend.
It was an improvement over Friday’s 4–1 loss to Comox as the Generals came away with a 3–1 victory Saturday night.
Wyatt Petryshen gave the Generals a 2–1 lead Saturday off a nice passing play that started with Jonah Pearson, who dropped a pass to Nate Fitzpatrick, who then hit Petryshen with a feed and he made no mistake putting it home. The goal came 41 seconds after Brodie Smith tied the game on a power play.
Giroux stopped 29 of the 30 shots he faced on the night and kept the Generals in it with a huge save late in the game.
“It felt amazing. It always feels good to make some saves to help keep the team in it,” Giroux, 17-year–old from Qualicum Beach, who picked up his fourth win on the season. “It was nice to see the boys keep pushing there in the third and to come away with the win was great. It’s nice to feel like I played a good game and to see the team play a good game too was good all around.”
Instead the Generals used that momentum to push the team past the breaking point, knotting the game up with less than four minutes to play and then taking the lead from that point on. Smith added an empty net goal to seal the win for the Generals.
“I thought we played with guts and courage in the third and it turned out to be a good thing for us. Giroux was spectacular all night and made some sensational saves in the third period. Mikey blocked a big shot for us in the third as well and that was big. You don’t get on the stat sheet for stuff like that but it was big for us. It was nice to see all four lines contributing out there in their own ways tonight and it was a good win,” said head coach Bill Bestwick.
Friday night saw Jonah Pearson, a 17-year–old from Nanaimo, continue his streak against the Glacier Kings as he scored his third goal in the last two meetings and added an assist Saturday to reach 17 points on the season.
“It’s been nice for us lately, the team’s really been gelling with Bill Bestwick behind us and it felt good to get that win. Giroux bailed us out a few times when we needed it and that was huge for us,” Pearson said.
Recently named to the North All Star team, for a game Jan. 26 in Duncan, Brodie Smith scored two goals to help his team to victory.
“It was a great game. Liam was unreal tonight, he played great and stood on his head all night for us, that was huge. We kept working hard all game and it was nice to see us finally break through. It came a little later than we wanted but it was nice to see it happen,” Smith said.
The Generals are back at it Thursday, taking on the Cougars in Victoria. The Generals then host the Campbell River Storm (Saturday, 7:30 p.m.) and Comox Valley on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
