By Malcom Cooke
The Nanaimo Clippers bounced back from last night's loss with a 6-3 victory over the Cowichan Valley Capitals on Teddy Bear Toss night. The Clippers head into the Christmas break with a 23-4-1 record. Willyam Gendron and Charles Tardif scored twice to lead the Clippers in their 23rd win of the year. Joel Plante and Micheal Craig added the two other goals. Shane Shelest got the start on the second night of back-to-back games and stopped 24 of 27 shots. In addition to the offensive explosion, 81 minutes in penalties were dished out.
Broisbriand, Quebec-born Willyam Gendron got the Teddy Bear Toss night started early. Scoring his 10th goal of the year less than 4 minutes into the game. After the barrage of bears ended, Shane Shelest stopped a Cowichan Valley chance to equalize with his toe. Brown University commit Ethan Mistry wheeled around the offensive zone and fired a shot on Capital goalie McCoy Bidewell that was stopped initially but the rebound was tapped home by Joel Plante.
Payant got a roughing penalty followed by a Cowichan penalty for goaltender interference. Four-on-four play lasted for a minute. The Capitals scored short-handed after the Payant penalty expired to get within one goal. Charles Tardif of Quebec City put home a rebound for a 3-1 first-period lead. The third goal was quickly followed up 40 seconds later by another Gendron goal.
The first period saw Nanaimo outshoot Cowichan Valley 15-10, starting with more energy than they had on Friday night.
Tardif scored his second of the game on a rebound after Jérémie Payant crashed the net.
A penalty to Mistry was killed off after multiple shots were blocked by the Clippers' penalty kill. The Clippers were awarded a 5-min. power play after Cowichan defenceman Adam Bourgeois took a blow to the head penalty. Nanaimo spent the rest of the second on the power play. Despite the myriad of chances, Bidewell kept the Clippers from scoring on the extended power play. The Capitals managed to score their second short-handed goal of the game, cutting into the lead.
Shelest sprawled out for a save on a 2-on-1 breakaway that kept the Capitals down three goals going into the second intermission.
A pair of penalties were issued after Gendron hauled down a Capitals player, who subsequently was called for embellishment. Cowichan took another penalty leading to a full minute of 4-on-3 play which amounted to no scoring. Captain Micheal Craig scored a rare front-of-the-net goal on a wide-open net five minutes into the third putting the game out of reach at 6-2. Shortly after the goal, Skylar Cameron and Kai Dunitz got into a dust-up after the whistle. While heading to the bench Cameron reminded the Capital bench what the score of the game was, which earned Cameron a gross misconduct penalty. Cowichan cut the lead to 6-3 after a shot was tipped in front of Shelest. That would be the end of the scoring for the game, but not the end of the action. A kerfuffle at the end of the third resulted in more penalties for each side and when the dust settled a total of 81 penalty minutes were dished out between both teams.
The Quebec-born players on the Clippers swept the three stars of the game. With three assists, Jérémie Payant earned the third star. Two-goal scorers Charles Tardif and Willyam Gendron were the second and first stars, respectively. FortisBC Energy Player of the Game went to Joel Plante for his two-point performance.
The next Clipper home game is January 6th against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs. Tickets can be purchased at Nanaimoclippers.com or the Frank Crane box office on game day.
Enjoy the Christmas holiday Clipper fans!
