Victoria Grizzlies News
HOLFELD HOLDS THE FORT AGAINST CENTENNIALSDecember 16, 2009 Sharie Epp ©Times Colonist - Maybe the Victoria Grizzlies should have a sevenminute warmup every night. After a series of delays, the Grizzlies didn’t arrive in Merritt until 7 p.m. last night, the scheduled start time of their B.C. Hockey League game against the Centennials. “The boys got dressed in 10 minutes,” said Grizzlies coach Victor Gervais, whose team went on to shutout the Centennials 4-0 after running into transportation problems getting off the Island. The Grizzlies had planned to catch the 11 a.m. ferry, but their bus overheated. On a replacement bus, they went for the 1 p.m. sailing, but a passenger had a heart attack. It was going onto 2 p.m., before the boat finally left Swartz Bay. A crazy way to start a road trip, but goaltender Ryan Holfeld held things together, until his teammates got their legs moving. Vancouver major midget call-up Pearce Eviston scored the winner at 3:21 of the second period, and Victoria took over in the third, on two goals by Dustin Mowrey, and another by Jared Eng. “We dominated in the third,” Gervais said. “[Merritt] was undisciplined. They took a lot of penalties.” The scoreless first period in Merritt was mostly a goaltenders duel between Holfeld and Cents rookie Keith Hamilton. Each goalie came up with some key stops, but Holfeld started to win the battle in the second period, as the Grizzlies picked up their first victory in four games. With the win, the fourthplace Grizzlies extended their lead over Nanaimo to four points, after the Clippers lost 2-1 in overtime to Westside last night. Last week, the Grizzlies suffered overtime losses in Burnaby and Powell River, then came home to drop a 5-3 decision to the Langley Chiefs on Sunday. The Grizz (18-12-2-5) are in Salmon Arm tonight to play the Silverbacks, and finish off the 2009 campaign on Friday and Saturday, in Vernon and Trail, respectively.
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