Campbell River Storm fans might not get another chance to see their home team for a little while.
After beating the Saanich Braves 3-1 Monday night down Island, the team is in position to finish its semi-final playoff series in four straight games Wednesday night, meaning they would then wait for the completion of the Victoria/Nanaimo series to wrap up before the VIJHL playoff finals can be scheduled.
That series is tied 2-2 with Game 5 scheduled for Thursday, Game 6 for Friday and Game 7 for Sunday.
The Storm brough the offensive skills that were on display all season long into Saanich on Monday, peppering goaltender Anderson Violette with 17 shots in the first period. Violette was once again his team’s best weapon on the night, however, turning aside all but one of those shots to keep his team in the game. Only Pearce Messer would find the twine behind Violette before the end of the first period, despite the team’s efforts.
The Braves would take advantage of their goaltender’s efforts and even the game up 7:25 into the second period when Jacob Wilhelm would beat Storm goaltender Aaron de Kok, who has been more than Violette’s equal throughout the series. De Kok is leading all goaltenders these playoffs with a 1.50 Goals Against Average. His .938 Save Percentage is also good enough to top the league playoff stats table.
That would be the only goal he would allow on the night, as well.
Damon Kramer, however, would solve Violette on a powerplay 13:42 into the third period, and Darren Hards would put the game away under a minute later when he made the score 3-1 for the visitors.
Violette would head to the bench with 2:11 left on the clock as his team would press for the equalizer, but de Kok and the rest of the team stood tall on defence to take Game 3 and keep their hopes for a sweep alive after going the full seven games in round one against Peninsula.
Game four, which could end the series, happens tomorrow night down in Saanich.
Should the Braves pull out a win tomorrow night, however, the two teams will come back to the Brindy for Game 5 on Friday night.