Despite outshooting the visiting Lake Cowichan Kraken 51-29, Port Alberni Bombers lost 5-1 in Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League play on Wednesday night at the Alberni Valley Multiplex.
As one might expect, goaltending would prove to be the difference as Kraken net minder Noah Pfab stopped fifty of those fifty-one shots in leading his team to victory.
But that wasn’t the whole story. This was a game of moments. First moment – against the run of play Thomas Harrow scored on the power play to give the Kraken the early lead less than three minutes into the contest.
Second moment – after Domenico Tremblay had scored for the Bombers to tie the game at 1-1, the locals went to the power play, only to have Lake Cowichan’s Colten Palmer score a short handed marker to give the Kraken the lead at 2-1 as the teams went to the dressing room after twenty minutes.
Third moment – over a span of fifty-seven seconds in the second frame, the Kraken got goals from Nikita Melnichenok and Avraham Brown to push lead to 4-1.
Fourth moment – just over a minute into the third frame Madden Kelly scored the final marker of the contest to make the score 5-1 and the Kraken then relied on their goal tender to get them to the finish line.
Make no mistake, there were ebbs and flows to the contest as the Kraken held sway at some points, but the Bombers held the territorial advantage for most of it, and those moments, and the timing of them, enabled Lake Cowichan to go home with the two points from the victory.
The Bombers were 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Kraken went 1-for-3 with the man advantage. In a balanced attack, all five goal scorers also added one assist each.
The Bombers return to action on Sunday afternoon at the Alberni Valley Multiplex when they host Westshore Wolves in a 4:00 pm start.
Bombers Outshoot, But Don’t Outscore Kraken
