VIJHL North final begins as Oceanside Generals look to quell Storm

The first 400 fans through the door Wednesday night will receive a free rally towel, while Save-On-Foods is guaranteeing a $1,000 50/50 draw with proceeds benefitting the BC Children’s Hospital.

The series will shift back and forth between Parksville and Campbell River with game two hosted by the Storm on Friday, March 17. Game three is due back at Oceanside Place on Saturday, March 18.

If needed, both game five would be Thursday, March 23 and game seven would go Saturday, March 25 in Parksville.

The two teams played five times in the regular season with the Generals sweeping the Storm and outscoring them 29-12.

Oceanside’s now-27 game winning streak in VIJHL regular season and playoffs began with a win over Campbell River on Nov. 26, 2022.

Lemmon said the streak, their rest between series and all the things going Oceanside’s way mean nothing if they don’t come out strong for game one.

“We played Peninsula in the finals last year, we went down 3-0 then fought our way back to get to 3-2 and lost in overtime in game six. I bring that up in every series we play just to make sure we understand how important these first couple of games are.”

As he did in the regular season, Carter Johnson led the Generals through their first-round sweep of the Port Alberni Bombers with two goals and six assists in the four games.

Both Matthew Hutchison and Ashton Sadauskas split responsibilities in net, allowing three goals in two starts each.

“I talk to them both, both are great goalies,” Lemmon added. “Ashton took us to the finals in game six last year, Hutch [Hutchison] is a real up-and-coming goalie who’s had incredible numbers this season. Right now, they’re going to go back and forth until we run into problems.”

Campbell River took a much more difficult route to the second round of the playoffs, going 3-0 up in their series against Comox Valley before dropping the next three games.

Kye Benoche scored early into overtime of game seven on Friday, March 10 to send his team into the next round.

Justin Gyori led the Storm in scoring with two goals and seven assists in the seven-game series. Benoche had three goals and four helpers.

In net, Nick Peters started six of the seven games and posted a 4-1-1 record with a 2.19 goals against average and a .938 save percentage.

Lemmon said crowds will likely play a big role as well, with both Oceanside and Campbell River topping VIJHL attendance figures.

“We’re expecting big crowds, we’re getting 800-plus in the playoffs…and obviously Campbell River has a lot of travelling fans so we’re going to get a lot of energy out of the Howie Meeker building and our fans and that should be enough to push us through I hope.”

The winner of the series between Oceanside and Campbell River will play in the VIJHL Final against either Saanich or Victoria.

Their series also begins Wednesday night.

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by Alex Rawnsley

VIJHL North final begins as Oceanside Generals look to quell Storm

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