It was a tale of two different teams last weekend as Oceanside’s Save On Foods Generals opened their latest home-and-home against the Kerry Park Islanders with a solid 6-4 road win Thursday night, then looked listless on home ice Saturday in an 8-3 loss.
If head coach and GM Dave Johnston sounded a bit perplexed Sunday, he had good reason.
“On Thursday we played very well; we played with structure and executed the game plan, and we were full value for the win. On Saturday we started off great, and then played like crap the rest of the game.”
On Thursday Noah Russi (Nick Bell, Taylor Grobowski) and Kyle Yamasaki (Connor Enright, Josef Chase) staked the Gens to a 2-0 first period lead with back-to-back power play markers in the span of 19 seconds.
KP replied with three goals in the first eight minutes of the second to take a 3-2 lead, but power play goals by Justin Polischuk (Chase, Dylan Haugen) and Taylor Grobowski (Enright, Yamasaki) 38 seconds apart upped it to 4-3 Gens after 40 minutes.
The Islanders scored their lone power play goal 1:54 into the final frame for a 4-4 tie, but Enright’s goal with the man advantage at 12:07 proved to be the winner, while Haugen added at empty netter with under a minute left.
At home at Oceanside Place Saturday, both teams came out flying. Kerry Park opened the scoring at 9:40, and Yamasaki struck for two power play goals in just over two minutes; KP jumped on a defensive breakdown for a short-handed marker at 18:47, and Yamasaki scored his third of the period on the PP with 34 seconds left in the frame for a 3-2 Gens lead.
That would be it for the home team though, as the Gens gave up four unanswered goals in the second and two more in the third.
Michael Gudmanson made 27 saves for the win in net on Saturday and was replaced by Dylan Quinn midway through the second period of Saturday’s game.
The split puts the Gens at 8-13-1 on the season and one point up on the Islanders for fifth in the seven-team Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League.
ICE CHIPS
Oceanside had three new wingers in the lineup on the weekend.
Joining the Gens were call-up Marino Somerville, 16, from Port Alberni.
He’s the brother of injured Generals’ winger Luciano Somerville.
The team also brought in hard-nosed wingers Chris West, 20, from Berkeley, California, a late cut from the Manitoba Jr. League, and Cam McCarrick from Port Hardy.
McCarrick, 19, played for Johnston and the Gens the last two seasons and was reacquired from the Campbell River Storm last week.
“We needed to add some sand paper, some size and grit, and that’s what we did,” said Johnston.
GAME ON
The Generals are in Comox Saturday night to take on their arch rivals the Glacier Kings (13-6-2) and return home Sunday for the back end of the home and home.
Puck drops at 2:30 p.m.