Normal is a relative term in sports this year.
The Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League is approaching something close to it this week after the North Division comes off a seven-day pandemic pause due to recent COVID cases at a Nanaimo school where several VIJHL players attend. No players were known to be infected and the pause was purely precautionary. The four cancelled games will be rescheduled.
鈥淚t was not unexpected,鈥� said Campbell River Storm GM and head coach Lee Stone.
鈥淚t was na茂ve to think we would go the entire season without some sort of shutdown. With the news of the vaccines, maybe things will be closer to normal at playoff time.鈥�
The VIJHL South Division also re-emerged this week after a scheduled two-week break to allow teams to quarantine before rotating into new cohorts. sa国际传媒 regulations allow for a maximum of four teams per cohort. While the North Division has four teams, the South Division has five, meaning cohorts of two and three teams in the South. The Peninsula Panthers have found themselves in the former twice in a row. The Panthers opened with 10 consecutive games against the Victoria Cougars and now face 14 consecutive games to Dec. 21 against the Kerry Park Islanders.
鈥淣o use whining about it. It鈥檚 just the way the chips fell,鈥� said Panthers co-owner and GM Pete Zubersky.
The Panthers, who went 2-8 in the consecutive stretch against the Cougars, opened their opus against the Islanders (4-6) with a 5-1 victory Tuesday at Kerry Park Arena. The second of the 14-game marathon between the clubs is Friday evening at the Panorama Rec Centre.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not allowed any affiliated players and the injury bug hit us against Victoria,鈥� said Zubersky. 鈥淏ut the kids got better throughout those 10 straight games against the Cougars.鈥�
It wasn鈥檛 as easy as it might have looked for powerhouse Victoria. Especially with the Panthers featuring Tanner Wort. He is the 2019-20 winner of the Jamie Benn Trophy as league MVP, named after the former Peninsula star and current 颅Dallas Stars captain. 鈥淲e knew it was going to be a challenge because Peninsula had a good team last year and returned Wort and the other top-three scorers in the league from last season,鈥� said Cougars GM Brody Coulter.
鈥淏ut we have a deep group from top to bottom. We don鈥檛 have all-stars but a solid core with no weaknesses. The 10 straight games was different. But we鈥檙e happy just to be playing. People were skeptical but the league has managed to do it. We are willing to jump through any hoops to keep it safe to allow these players to continue their junior careers.鈥�
The Westshore Wolves, Saanich Predators and Kerry Park were in the other original South Division cohort. Following the quarantine break, the Cougars, Predators and Wolves have hived off into a new cohort. It began this week with Victoria (9-1-1) beating Saanich 9-4. The Cougars continue by playing Westshore (7-3-1) tonight at Archie Browning Sports Centre and the Predators (4-6-1) on Friday night at Pearkes Arena. The Wolves began their week Wednesday night with an 8-6 win over the Predators at The Q Centre.
The North Division, 颅meanwhile, restarts with the Oceanside Generals (7-4-1) playing the Nanaimo Buccaneers (3-9) tonight at the NIC in the Harbour City and the Comox Valley Glacier Kings (4-7-1) visiting Campbell River to take on the Storm (10-2) at Rod Brind鈥橝mour Arena.
No fans are allowed in the arenas, which affects the Storm more than any team. The Brindy 鈥� named in honour of the Campbell River hometown Stanley Cup champion captain and now coach of the Carolina Hurricanes 鈥� can get very noisy.
鈥淗aving no fans in the rink has been tough for us to adjust to,鈥� said Stone. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 always been a big advantage for us, but even visiting teams love to come up to play us because of the atmosphere. But we鈥檙e blessed just to be playing.鈥�
The VIJHL hopes to keep it going by avoiding any more unscheduled pandemic breaks of the sort the North Division underwent last week.
鈥淲e have 10 returnees who had their seasons cut short last spring when the pandemic hit,鈥� said Stone.
鈥淪o we have our fingers crossed but are doing more than that and are leading by example on and off the ice in the community, even by just wearing masks in public. That鈥檚 not always a cool thing among this age group generally and our players are trying to be the example to change that.鈥�
The Storm hold down the top-three positions in the scoring parade with hometown Riverite Nolan Corrado on nine goals and 21 points, Owen Christensen on 10 goals and 20 points and Josh Pederson seven goals and 19 points. Bryce Irwin of the Cougars is fourth with 17 points. Carlos Siso of the Storm leads goaltenders with a 1.74 goals-against average with two shutouts in four starts while hometown Parksville-product Ashton Sadauskas of the Generals is second with a 1.79 average and two shutouts in five starts and Aaron de Kok of the Storm third at 1.98 in nine games with a league-leading seven wins.
