Backed by Rhett Stoesser, the BCHL's second star of the month of September, the Cowichan Valley Capitals played two home games in two nights starting with an Oct. 3 contest against the Nanaimo Clippers.
After spotting the Clippers five goals through the first 35 minutes, the Capitals got on the board with rookie Justin Pavese's second goal of the year.
Less than a minute later, the game's third star, Kole Keen, scored his first of the night, to make the score 5-2 in favour of Nanaimo.
The score was still 5-2 to start the third period, but not for long as rookie Anthony Hall pulled Cowichan to within two goals just 20 seconds in, on a power-play goal, his fourth of the season.
Nanaimo struck back nine minutes later to extend the Clippers' lead. Keen potted his second of the game with the man-advantage to make it 6-4 but an empty-net, power-play goal from Nanaimo with less than a minute remaining sealed the visiting team's 7-4 victory and handed the home team their first loss of the season.
The following night, the Powell River Kings were in town and with two more goals, Keen led the team to a 6-3 bounce-back victory.
Carter Dekay scored 35 seconds into the game to get Cowichan off on the right skate and Keen doubled the lead on the power-play 11 minutes in.
The Kings scored later in the period and the first intermission came with Cowichan up 2-1.
In a moment of pure entertainment for Caps fans, rookie Ryder Dembo scored the first goal of his BCHL career on a penalty shot just over four minutes into the second stanza to put his team up 3-1.
Adam Lang and Keen followed with a second period goal each before Powell River replied with two.
An empty-netter late in the third from Camden Charron, his first of the year, iced the 6-3 victory.
Goalie Jack Hirshorn earned the win between the pipes, making 17 saves on 20 shots.
Despite scoring 10 goals in two games, there's still plenty of work to do, said Capitals head coach Cam Keith.
"This year we put more an emphasis on defending early and 11 goals in two games is far above what is acceptable," he said. "The team is capable of scoring a lot of goals, but we want to also take pride in the defensive side."
The Capitals visit Frank Crane Arena on Oct. 8, to play the Clippers in the first of five straight games on the road.
"You can’t complain when you start five and one, but four of those games were at home," Keith noted. "We have three games this week on the road, all of which are division games in Nanaimo, Victoria and Alberni Valley, all of which have winning records so far. I think this will be more of an indicator of where we’re at."
On Oct. 10 and 11 Cowichan visits Victoria and Alberni Valley respectively with games in Chilliwack and Abbotsford to follow.
