With only two games remaining until the Christmas break, December has been Grinch-like to the Comox Valley Glacier Kings thus far.
The Yetis have dropped all four Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League games played so far this month, after back-to-back losses over the weekend.
Comox Valley lost 6-5 to the Saanich Predators Friday in Victoria, then dropped a 7-6 decision to the Peninsula Panthers in Courtenay, Saturday night.
Friday鈥檚 game down south went south in a hurry for the Glacier Kings.
Logan Furlong opened the scoring at 1:13 of the first period, but it didn鈥檛 take long before the Yetis were playing catch-up.
Goals from Thomas Jenkins and Michael Hoekstra, 15 seconds apart, midway through the first period gave the Predators a lead they would never relinquish.
In fact, Saanich added another four, for a 6-1 lead, before the Glacier Kings scored again.
Furlong scored a short-handed goal at the 11-minute mark of the second and defenceman Jean-Michael Gilbert made it 6-3 one minute later.
Max Gorzelnik and Jake Gusavitch each scored in the third but Saanich held on for the win.
Glacier Kings goalie Steven Reganato made 20 saves.
Saturday鈥檚 game was a much closer affair, with four lead changes.
The Yetis opened the scoring for the second straight game, when rookie defenceman Vincent Cartier netted his fourth of the season, and first of two in the game.
Not to be outdone, VIJHL goal-scoring leader Ryan Grambart (25 goals) tied the game less than three minutes later, with his first of two, as well.
Tynan Klein-Beekman, with his seventh, and Gorzelnik, with his 15th, gave Comox Valley a 3-1 lead, but the Panthers chipped away, scoring one more in the first, then adding two in the first six minutes of the second, for a 4-3 lead.
Gusavitch tied the game with 8:27 to play in the second, but Evan Crawford restored the lead for Peninsula five minutes later.
Kieran Smith made it 6-4, midway through the third, but the Glacier Kings kept battling.
With Renegato on the bench for the extra attacker, Nick Esposito scored his team-leading 18th goal, giving the Yetis some hope.
Any thoughts of completing the comeback were short-lived, however.
Renegato returned to the ice for the centre ice face-off, then got back to the bench for an extra attacker 11 seconds later.
This time it backfired, as Grambart found the empty net with one minute to play.
The Glacier Kings added another (Cartier) with 18 seconds to play and the goalie pulled, but could not get the equalizer.
The 17-10-1-3 Yetis will try to break out of their December funk this weekend. They play in Lake Cowichan against the 11-16-1-1 Kraken on Friday, before wrapping up the 2022 portion of the season by hosting the 5-23-0-1 Nanaimo Buccaneers, Saturday night.
