The Campbell River Storm are heading in to tonight’s game against the Victoria Cougars with a 1-0 series lead in the final round of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League playoffs.
The Storm took game one of the best of seven series Thursday night in Victoria.
The Storm opened the scoring late in the first period, with some heroics from Ben Raffler who put the Storm on the board with just a minute and half remaining in the first frame.
The Storm went up 2-0 minutes into the second period when Reid Wheeldon found the back of the net.
The Cougars, however, were quick to respond with two goals of their own, with a powerplay goal from Jordan Passmore as the equalizer.
The Storm, though, had the answer and fired back with goals from Mitchell Williams and Dylan McCann to regain their two-goal lead.
The Cougars fought til the bitter end, and weren’t going to go away lightly. Passmore got Victoria to within one with just under three minutes to go in the game, but it wasn’t enough as the Storm rolled away with a 4-3 victory.
Storm netminder Chris Smith was solid in goal, turning away 30 shots on the night.
The puck drops on game two of the Island championship series tonight (Friday) at 7:30 p.m. at Rod Brind’Amour Arena. The Storm will be back in Victoria for game three on Sunday before returning home to host the Cougars on Tuesday night for game four.
Games five, six and seven, if necessary, are slated for next Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.