Owen Dalman’s goal 8:22 into the second overtime Sunday gave Victoria a 3-2 home-ice win over the Westshore Wolves and gave the Cougars a 2-1 lead in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League South Division semifinal.
Game 4 goes this Wednesday night (March 1) at 7 p.m. back at The Q Centre, where the Wolves handed the league’s regular season champions a 4-2 loss Friday to tie the series at a game apiece.
The high-flying Cougars, who finished the regular season a full 30 points ahead of the fourth-place Wolves, have been given all they can handle by the gutsy Westshore squad.
Game 1 in Esquimalt, won 4-1 by the Cougars, was essentially a one-goal game until eight minutes to go in the third period when Grayden Hohl notched a power play marker to make it 3-1. An empty netter by Hohl put things away.
In game 2 Westshore spotted the Cougars a 2-0 first period lead then reeled off four unanswered goals to win going away. Jake Calnan scored twice in the win, while Brandon Tutte and Mitch Popp tallied singles for the Wolves. Branden Tangney and Shane Kime opened scoring for Victoria, who fired 33 shots at winning goalie Jordan Spandli.
On Sunday the Cougars’s Jordan Passmore and Westshore’s Jordan Guiney traded first-period power play goals to make it 1-1 after one, then an early second period power play marker from the Cougars’ Grayden Hohl made it 2-1. But the Wolves responded again, with Cameron Coutre beating Victoria goalie Anthony Ciurro 9:41.
The Wolves poured on the pressure in the third, firing 14 shots at Ciurro, but the veteran netminder was equal to the task. The tables were turned in overtime, as the Cougars outshot the Wolves 14-6 through the first 10-minute OT and most of the second, before Dalman finished off a passing play from Akila Sato-Gaudreau and Avery Hill.
Both teams finished with 42 shots on goal.
editor@goldstreamgazette.com