It was another tense and chippy affair between the Campbell River Storm and the Port Alberni Bombers in VIJHL North Division semi-final playoff action Friday, Feb. 25 at the Rod Brind’Amour Arena.
After the series opening game went into three overtime periods before it was settled in favour of the Storm Wednesday, it was no surprise that Friday’s game had a feeling of inevitable overtime as well. And certainly the see-saw battle was kept so even thanks to the play of Bombers goaltender Callum Tung who faced 51 shots.
As it was, the game was sent into overtime on the tying goal by Sam Davidson, assisted by Jaydon Merritt at the 13:13 minute mark of the third period. It didn’t take three overtime periods to settle it, however, with Bombers’ Brendan Almer notching the winner and tying the series at 6: 15 in the first overtime period.
Campbell River opened the scoring on a marker by Tynan Peacock, assisted by Mitchell Finner at 12:36 of the first period.
Alberni tied it at 4:27 of the second on a goal by Hunter Harwood, assisted by Mason Cannon. Campbell River’s Jalen Price scored his third goal of the series and gave the Storm the lead at 6:57 on assists by Finner and Peacock.
The Bombers kept pace, though, with a power play goal by Nathan MacDonald, assisted by Harwood at 8:34 of the second.
The teams traded goals again in the third with Finner scoring for the Storm at 9:57 on assists from Nolan Corrado and Carter De Boer and Almer’s tying marker at 13:13.
Storm goaltender Nick Peters faced 27 shots and, in fact, stoned the Bombers late in the third period with a save that would see that the game even made it to overtime.
The refereeing did nothing to endear themselves to the Storm fans after their team was assessed three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, four 10-minute misconducts and three game misconducts. In all, 16 minor penalties were assessed to both teams, a number of them concurrently. A chorus of home fan boos sent the officials on their way after the Bombers notched the overtime winner.
Next game in the series is Sunday in Port Alberni, followed by game four on Tuesday in P.A. Game five will be back in Campbell River next Friday.