Games against the South Division leaders, the Peninsula Panthers, away, and the Westshore Warriors, at home, were on the No. 3-ranked Kerry Park Islanders' schedule this past weekend as the team looked to gain ground on Westshore and inch closer to the second-place slot in the South Division Standings.
Peninsula had other plans, however, as the Panthers had Kerry Park's number on Friday night beating the Isles 6-3. Finlay Klippenstein scored twice for the Islanders and Cameron Lott added a single. Ethan Taylor took the loss in goal.
The following night against Westshore, Kerry Park rebounded with a 3-2 win in front of their home crowd. Klippenstein continued a solid weekend with his team's first goal. Jobey Pearson and Bryce Burnett rounded out the Islanders' scoring. Ethan Barron got the win between the pipes, stopping 32 of 34 shots.
The Islanders travel to the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena on Dec. 6 for a cross-valley competition with the Lake Cowichan Kraken in what's sure to be a crowd pleaser.
The Kraken have been steadily improving all season and won their last two games of November, beating the Victoria Cougars 4-1 on Nov. 28 and the Port Alberni Bombers 2-1 on Nov. 29.
The Kraken currently sit fifth in the North Division.
"Nothing really changes for us based on opponent," admitted head coach Jake Ebner. "Some games may seem like there is more at stake because of history or logistics but for us we prepare the same for every team. We want to get better every week and our opponent has no influence on that. There will be focus on specific areas each week but we know anything can happen on any day in this league so we just need to make sure we are prepared and ready to go when it's game time"
