The Kerry Park Islanders were in a tough spot after the first four games of their Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League quarter-final series with the Saanich Braves, down three games to one heading into Tuesday night’s game in Mill Bay, but head coach Aaron Spotts had reasons to be optimistic.
“One thing I’ve learned about this team is that they’ve been a really resilient bunch all year,” he said. “It’s not the spot we want to be in, but we have to focus on getting a good start.”
The Isles have dealt with more than their share of adversity all season, but all along, they’ve stuck with what has made them successful on the ice, and Spotts believes the team will continue doing that. The team knew after game four on Sunday what needed to be done to turn the series around.
“We need to trust what we’ve done all year, go out and execute it, and have a good solid effort,” Spotts said. “We’ve been getting off to good starts, then all of a sudden, we’re down two goals,” Spotts noted. “We’ve got a few things in the defensive end to clean up. We’ve had opportunities to score; we’re just not scoring right now.”
The Isles lost the first two games at home, falling 6-3 last Tuesday and 3-1 on Thursday. The Braves led 3-0 after two periods on Thursday. Isaac Leik gave the Isles some hope when he scored 53 seconds into the third, but that was all the offence the team would muster. Rett Rook stopped 23 of 26 shots in the Kerry Park net, while Anderson Violette made 31 saves for Saanich.
The Isles bounced back to win 4-1 on Friday. The Braves opened the scoring with a powerplay goal late in the first, but Leik scored a powerplay goal to even things up before the first period ended. After a scoreless second, Leik put the Isles ahead midway through the third, and Evan Easton added two powerplay goals before the night was done. Tanner Tiel and Brandon McClintick each registered three assists on the night, while Rook made 30 saves and Violette had 23.
The Braves won by an identical 4-1 score on Sunday afternoon, taking a 2-0 lead in the first before Avery Nielsen-Webb got the Isles on the board early in the second. The Braves added two more, including one from Duncan product Will Wright. Rook made 39 stops to Violette’s 27.
Leik paced the Isles through the first four games with three goals and two assists, building on a strong regular season.
“He’s definitely been our best forward up front. He’s been around the physical play and scored a couple of goals; he’s been a big part of it so far. He needs to continue that and other guys need to step up.”
Spotts was hoping for a good start in game five on Tuesday night.
“Hopefully we’ll get some confidence in the first period and that will carry on for the rest of the game.”
If necessary, game six will take place at George Pearkes Arena in Saanich on Friday and game seven will be at Kerry Park on Saturday. Spotts believes his team can stretch the series out.
“The pressure isn’t on us as much as it was in the last game,” he said prior to game five. “We have to go out there and execute our systems, have fun with it and see if we can dig ourselves out a bit.”
