The Campbell River Junior B Ravens headed down-Island on Sunday to face off against the Westshore Bears at Bear Mountain Arena.
The Ravens came out ready to play and only 39 seconds into the game Brayden Howes would find the back of the net on a pass from Matt Lund to put the Ravens on the scoreboard.
One minute later the Bears would get a marker to tie the game. The rest of the period was all Ravens.
As Westshore fell into penalty trouble the Ravens would take full advantage and on a nice pass from defender and cousin Mac Maier, Hayden Smith would run the ball up the floor and score at 6:37 left in the first, giving the Ravens their second goal of the game.
Then again two minutes later, Smith would score on another power play to move the Ravens up to three. The period would end with the Ravens in a 3-1 lead over Westshore.
The second period started off with a lot of back and forth and again Westshore hitting the penalty box but then it was our turn to join them.
Eleven minutes in the boys would find themselvings playing 3-on-3 when Howes would keep the Ravens on a roll to get his second marker of the game on a nice pass across the floor from Arran Marlow.
The rest of the period would be a little tougher for the Ravens as they would lose their captain and D man Chris Vaux after a hit that kept him from returning to the floor.
The Bears continued their pressure on the Ravens’ defense with Logan Down facing 19 shots on goal in the second compared to the Ravens’ 11, and although he made many great saves, Westshore would gain a second goal with four minutes left in the period and then a third with 10 seconds left. The second period ended Ravens 4, Bears 3.
The Ravens had won the first two periods but Westshore was moving forward and would score with less then three minutes into the third to tie things up at four-a-side.
At 10:02 it was Campbell River’s turn to get another goal when Arran Marlow passed the ball to Smith who found the slot for the Ravens’ fifth and his third goal for the hat trick.
With 21 shots on net, the Ravens were playing a lot of defense and Westshore would score on a rebound at 8:46 and again two minutes later to give them the winning goal.
At the end of the game, the scoreboard showed a 6-5 loss to Campbell River over Westshore in another close PNWJLL game.
Coach Reg Elgie felt the boys played well but need to win the little battles, don’t chase on defense and calm themselves on the floor.
This showed in game stats as Westshore would win 48 loose balls throughout the game over the Ravens 36 which also played a huge role in the number of shots on net.
All this giving the Ravens goalie Logan Down lots of action as he has been named the top goalie of the league by the Island Chair.
Are you Raven-ously hungry?... This week the Ravens will hold their burger night fundraiser on Thursday and next weekend travel to Duncan for game seven on Saturday, June 11 at 3:30 to face off against the first place Cowichan team.