The Oceanside Generals split a pair of Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League games over the weekend.
On Friday, the league-leading Gens travelled to Comox Valley and dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the host Glacier Kings. Saturday at home, Oceanside responded with an impressive 5-3 win over the Campbell River Storm at Oceanside Place.
The Generals (19-3-2-2) still sit atop the league standings, and hold a three-point advantage over Campbell River (19-6-1-0) in the North Division. Comox Valley (17-7-1-2) is in third place, two points behind the Storm.
Against Comox, Oceanside held a 3-0 lead after two periods, but could not hang on.
Tyler Gyori, Dante Paziuk (on a power play) and Miles Carson staked the Gens to their lead, but Aodhan Hildebrant, Nick Esposito and Jake Gusavitch (with 1:21 left in the period) tallied in the third to tie things at 3-3.
Max Gorzelnik scored the winner 3:17 into overtime.
Matthew Hutchison took the loss in goal, making 40 saves. Steven Reganato got the win for Comox Valley, making 36 stops.
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Against Campbell River, Brayden Ross’s goal at 17:35 of the second period stood up as the winner.
Paziuk had a hat trick to lead the Oceanside attack, with league scoring leader Carter Johnson cementing the win with an empty-net goal.
Johnson also had three assists.
Justin Gyori, Kal Nagy and Mitchell Finner scored for the Storm.
Hutchison earned the win between the pipes, making 29 saves. Nick Peters (31 stops) took the loss.
ICE CHIPS: Oceanside visits the Nanaimo Buccaneers Thursday (Dec. 1), before returning home to host the Peninsula Panthers Saturday (7 p.m.) at Oceanside Place… Saturday’s win over Campbell River came on Hockey Fights Cancer Night. The team thanked the Generals fans and the Storm fans who made the trip down, for supporting the event. “Thank you also to all of the Storm and Generals players for taking part in the “I fight for” campaign and sharing who they are fighting for. Because of the generous support of the fans at last nights game, we raised $2,000 for the Lloyd O’Brien Bursary fund,” read a note on the team’s Facebook page.
— NEWS Staff