Caleb Franklin and Parker Ellis scored their first junior B goals last Saturday as the Kerry Park Islanders earned a 2-1 win at home over the Peninsula Panthers in a relatively quiet weekend for the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League team.
“Our top line didn’t score, but the guys we wanted to get scoring did,” Islanders owner Mark Osmond remarked.
The outing wasn’t Kerry Park’s best so far this season, but it was enough to get past the Panthers.
“We played a decent game,” Osmond said. “Not a great game, but a decent game.”
The Isles were two and a half minutes from a shutout win when Kyle Green took an ill-advised roughing penalty and the Panthers managed to score on the powerplay. Once again, infractions and retaliation caused problems for the team.
“We were able to close out the game with the win, but I wasn’t happy with some of the penalties we took,” Osmond said. “We weathered the storm and got the two points that we were wanting. Overall it was a good performance.”
Goalie Chase Anderson came close to collecting his first shutout, stopping 28 saves on 29 shots. He and Ty Rennie have formed a reliable backbone for the Islanders throughout the young season.
“Both of our goalies are playing well,” Osmond said. “We’re really happy with both of them. We have a good tandem there.”
The Isles will be busier this weekend with two games on the slate, both at home. They play host to the Saanich Braves on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and the Oceanside Generals on Sunday at 3 p.m. Kerry Park tied Saanich 3-3 when they played earlier in the season, and hasn’t faced the Generals yet this year.
“Both games I expect us to win,” Osmond said. “But we’ll see.”
