By Ian Holmes

Buccaneers haunted again by bad first period

Sep 30, 2016 | 8:52 AM

NANAIMO — Once again a bad start cost the Nanaimo Buccaneers.

The VIJHL club outplayed the Kerry Park Islanders, however were beaten 3-2 Thursday night at the Nanaimo Ice Centre.

Two first period goals in 43 seconds paced the Islanders (4-3) to victory over the Buccaneers (2-5).

“You put yourself in a two goal hole in this league and it’s hard to come out of and their goaltender played really well for them tonight,” says Buccaneers head coach Dan Lemmon.

Dylan Hartl scored his first of the season for Nanaimo, while Jaydon Schubert lit the lamp with just 19-seconds left in the game while Bucs goaltender Cedric Lesieur was pulled, but it wasn’t enough.

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The Bucs carried the flow of play for most of the game, registering 37-shots on goal, however, Coach Lemmon says they didn’t do a good enough job of generating traffic in front of the Islanders net.

“We scored one of the goals on a clean beat, but you don’t get that often in this league.” Lemmon commented following the game.

“The goalies are at a higher level — if they’re seeing it, they’re stopping it. We gotta pay a price in front of the net and we’re not doing a good enough of it right now.”

First periods have plagued the Buccaneers early this season — the Bucs have been outscored 18-5 in first periods and are 0-5 when allowing the first goal.

Nanaimo’s two victories this season have come when scoring the game’s opening goal.

“First period is what’s killing us. You look at every game that we’ve lost it’s always we’ve got a first period deficit that we’re trying to come back from. We have to clean that up,” says Buccaneers forward Billy Walters.

Walters had an assist Thursday night, was named the game’s second star and singled out by head coach Dan Lemmon for being their best forward in the loss.

Lemmon says having much better starts is important in giving themselves a chance at winning consistently.

“We’ve had a hard time doing that so far, obviously we’re a young group and it’s something we’ve gotta figure out if we’re going to have any success going forward.”

Nanaimo travels to Courtenay Saturday night to challenge the Comox Valley Glacier Kings.

Bucs offensive cataylist Trent Bell, who served the third of a 4-game suspension Thursday night, is scheduled to return to the lineup next Thursday night when the Bucs host the Campbell River Storm. 

-With files from Kyle Ireland-