#10 Cole Lonsdale buried the puck in the top corner on the penalty shot he was awarded.
By Malcom Cooke
The Force was with the Nanaimo Clippers on Friday night as they defeated the Alberni Valley Bulldogs 7-4 on Star Wars night. The win gives the Clippers a record of 11-7-2 in their first 20 games of the 2023-24 BCHL season. Seven different Clippers scored in the game including 2 goals from defencemen, showcasing this team's incredible depth. The Clippers went 2 for 3 on power-play chances in the game and Cole Lonsdale added a rare penalty shot goal. Goaltender Tyler Hodges stopped 29 of the 33 shots he faced for his 9th win of the season.
To start the game, Tyler Hodges mishandled a dump-in and gave the puck away in front of his net. Fortunately, the Bulldogs were unable to get a shot off. Gabriel Westling opened the scoring 7 minutes into the game on a sneaky net front wrist shot. The Clippers nearly took a 2-0 lead if not for a quick toe save by Bulldogs netminder Hlib Artsatbonov. Nanaimo’s offence was buzzing around the Alberni net but could not slip the puck past the goal line. A dust-up after the whistle sent the Clippers' top defensive pairing of Matt Lahey and Brett Merner to the box, alongside 2 Bulldogs players. Alberni Valley took advantage of the penalized defensive pair and scored a late goal to tie the game at 1-1. Willyam Gendron was hit with a tripping penalty shortly after the game was tied, putting the Clippers on the penalty kill for the remainder of the 1st period and the first minute of the 2nd. After 1 period the Clippers led in shots by a 14-13 margin.
The Clippers successfully killed off the Gendron tripping penalty and rode the momentum with a flurry of early shots. Nanaimo spent the first half of the 2nd in the Alberni end of the rink, but could not retake the lead. The Bulldogs scored, taking a 2-1 lead, midway through the 2nd after a broken play led to a 3 on 2 for the visiting team. The Clippers managed to tie the game at 2-2 on a tip-in by Emmett McHardy on a point shot by Erik Sollied. The Clippers were awarded their first power play of the game shortly after tying it up. They needed less than 20 seconds of power-play time to take a 3-2 lead. Willyam Gendron scored his 9th goal of the year for the lead. As the clock ticked down, Emmett McHardy muscled his way through a couple of Alberni defenders before getting hooked on the hands, drawing a penalty. The Clippers would once again capitalize on the power play. Nobleton, Ontario’s Isa Parekh scored his first goal as a Clipper to give the home team a 4-2 lead. The Bulldogs chipped into the lead with less than a minute left in the 2nd. With only 3 seconds left in the 2nd Cole Lonsdale was slashed on a breakaway, resulting in a penalty shot attempt. Lonsdale buried the penalty shot top shelf to give Nanaimo a 5-3 lead going into the 2nd intermission. The Clippers outshot the Bulldogs 14-10 in the 2nd after ending the period on a high note.
The Bulldogs appeared to score early in the 3rd, but it was ultimately waved off. Frustration boiled over for Alberni over the disallowed goal, which resulted in a roughing penalty for forward Hayden Stavroff. For the first time in the game, the Clippers were unable to score on the power play. The Clippers added to their lead midway through the 3rd period as Luke Buss scored his 6th goal of the season to put the Clippers up 6-3. In the final minutes of the 3rd Matt Lahey was called for holding, giving the Bulldogs a late power-play chance. The Bulldogs pulled their goalie to have a 6 on 4 opportunity. Alberni managed to score on the power-play to cut the Clippers lead to 6-4. In the final minute of play, Clippers' defenceman Andrew Brown fired a 180-foot shot into the empty net for a Big Wheel Burger last-minute Clippers' goal, sending nearly 2000 fans home even happier on Star Wars night.
Gabriel Westling, Isa Parekh, and Willyam Gendron earned the 3 stars of the game Emmett McHardy took home the FortisBC Energy Player of the Game. The Clippers head to Port Alberni on Saturday for a rematch before returning home on Friday, December 1st against the Victoria Grizzlies. Tickets can be purchased at the Frank Crane box office on game day, or at tickets.nanaimoclippers.com.
Catch all of the exciting action at a 2023-2024 Nanaimo Clippers game.
Tickets can be purchased at tickets.nanaimoclippers.com.
