The Bucs stormed back to tie the game, but the opponent prevailed in overtime.
The Nanaimo Buccaneers fell 3-2 to the Campbell River Storm in Game 2 of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League semifinals on Thursday night at the Nanaimo Ice Centre.
The visitors led 2-0 midway through the third on a pair of goals from Aaron Brewer, but Nanaimo's Will McNamara scored on a point shot to draw his team within one and then Trent Bell skated his way into the slot and scored the tying goal with 1:45 left in regulation.
The Bucs couldn't get the next one, though, as the Storm ended it early in overtime with Josh Coblenz scoring on a rebound.
"My linemates made it pretty easy," he said. "They were just banging away and lucky enough it just came to my stick."
Jake Mullen was the winning goalie with 17 saves, while Alex Orth made 28 saves in defeat.
Coblenz said his team's success started with bench energy – being ready for every shift.
"The guys just really wanted it out there," he said. "All the guys went to battle for each other and it was a fun night."
The Buccaneers can draw some positives from their third-period comeback, but don't necessarily want to find themselves in those kind of situations trailing late.
"You put yourself in a position like that in the third period, you're bound to lose some of those games," Lemmon said.
Both teams suggested there's plenty of hockey still to be played in the series.
"In a seven game-series … one win and we're back in this thing," said Lemmon. "Obviously we're in dire need of a win tomorrow and it's almost a must-win situation for our team and we'll see what happens."
GAME ON … The Bucs and Storm play Game 3 on Friday (March 11) at 7:30 p.m. at Campbell River's Rod Brind'Amour Arena. Game 4 will be Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at the NIC.
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