The Comox Valley Glacier Kings have some catching up to do.

After opening their best-of-seven Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League North Division semifinal series against the Oceanside Generals with a victory last Tuesday (Feb. 27), the Generals took the next two games, for a 2-1 series lead.

The Glacier Kings won the opener 4-2 on home ice, before falling 3-0 in Oceanside on Thursday.

The teams met again at the Comox Valley Sports Centre on Saturday, with Oceanside prevailing, 4-2.

Game 1 was a relatively convincing win for the Glacier Kings, who scored three times in the first period and were five minutes away from a shutout before Oceanside netted a couple of late goals.

Two infractions on the same play late in the third period gave Oceanside a two-minute five-on-three power play and the Generals capitalized, as Brady Van Herk tapped home a scramble in front to give the Generals some life.

They pulled goalie Marc Samyn for an extra attacker with 2:45 remaining, and Braydon Ross made it 4-2 with :44 to play. The Generals continued to apply pressure for the final half-minute, but to no avail.

鈥淚t was a tale of two games I thought for our team,鈥� said Oceanside head coach Dan Lemmon. 鈥淥bviously in the first 20 minutes we weren鈥檛 competing hard enough. We weren鈥檛 first on pucks. But I thought in the second half of the game, we took over a little bit. There鈥檚 certainly something to build upon for our next game in Parksville. I do think if we play the whole 60 minutes on Thursday the way we played the second half of this game, we will get a better result.鈥�

鈥淲e have to stay out of the box,鈥� said Glacier Kings coach Mike Nesbitt. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 take penalties like that at the end. You have to play 60 minutes and we didn鈥檛 play 60 minutes - we played 55. We didn鈥檛 want to give them any momentum going into (Game 2) but we gave them that momentum.鈥�

The Generals rode that momentum in Game 2, scoring two goals in the first two minutes of the game, then adding another in the second.

鈥淲e started the game off with a puck off a stanchion that landed right in the slot. Our goalie thought the puck was coming around the net so 10 seconds in and it鈥檚 an easy tap-in and we鈥檙e down 1-0,鈥� explained Nesbitt. 鈥淎 minute later, one of our defencemen is injured so we are down a man, puck goes off the back glass, comes out in front of the net, and it was another tap-in. Two very uncontrollable, lucky goals, and we are down 2-0.

鈥淲e were all over them, their goaltender stood on his head鈥� we played well, we just didn鈥檛 get the result we deserved.鈥�

The Generals never trailed in Game 3, taking 1-0 and 3-1 leads into the intermissions.

鈥淭hey got the lead, we tied it up, then Jacob Thomas got his second goal - went into the goaltender鈥檚 pads鈥� looking at the video replay, I still haven鈥檛 seen the puck go in the net,鈥� said Nesbitt. 鈥淚 think it was a very suspect call. But Jacob Thomas, who hadn鈥檛 played in six games, coming off a suspension - heck of a player鈥� he was definitely their captain and their leader in Game 3.鈥�

Ironically, the team with the most shots on goal has lost every game.

The schedule gets very tough for the remainder of the series. Game 4 is in Parksville on Wednesday night. Game 5 is in Courtenay on Friday, and if necessary, Games 6 and 7 will be played on Saturday (in Parksville) and Sunday (in Courtenay).

Nesbitt said there has been some line shuffling in preparation for Game 4.

鈥淥bviously when you aren鈥檛 scoring as many goals as we are used to scoring, like we have all regular season, we have made some lineup changes,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e revamped all four lines - not one line is the same. We鈥檝e been working hard at practice and I am hoping this (Game 4) is our best game of the series so far.

鈥淏ut our leaders, our 20-year-old guys, have to be better. Their best guys are better than our best guys right now.鈥�

Other series

The other North Division semifinal between the Campbell River Storm and the Kerry Park Islanders is tied at two games apiece. Campbell River won the first two games, Feb. 27 and 28 by 4-1 and 5-2 margins before Kerry Park mounted a comeback, winning 6-2 in Campbell River on Friday, March 1 and 7-4 at home on March 2.

Game five takes place on Tuesday, March 5, after the Record goes to press.