Victoria Grizzlies News

GRIZZLES STORM BACK TO DOWN TOP-RATED VIPERS

GRIZZLES STORM BACK TO DOWN TOP-RATED VIPERS

photo courtesy Gary Woodburn

January 17, 2010 Ron Rauch ©Times Colonist -

When the three stars of last night’s B.C. Hockey League game at Bear Mountain Arena were not announced, coach Vic Gervais sent his entire team back on the ice. They deserved it.

The Victoria Grizzlies had just knocked off the No. 1 team in Canada — Vernon Vipers — 5-3 before 1,570 fans.

“In my eyes, they were all stars so I sent them back on the ice,’’ said Gervais.

“We have a young team and they worked very hard and stuck to the game plan for that win.’’

After the Vipers rallied from a 3-0 deficit to tie it 3-3 early in the third period on a goal by Braden Pimm, the Grizz stormed back on goals by Madison Dias and Alex Allan for the victory. It was the fifth consecutive win for Victoria, its longest winning streak of the season.

“This is a great feeling to beat the Vipers,’’ said Dustin Mowrey, who had a four-point night with a goal and three assists.

“Vernon has a great team and we knew that they would come at us hard but we found that extra wind in the third period. We changed our game plan a bit for this game and one of our main objectives was to slow them down by hitting them.’’

Dias scored the eventual winning goal at 9:29 of the third period after linemates Mowrey and Allan helped out.

“That goal gave us a huge lift,’’ said Mowrey. “We worked very hard on that shift for that goal.’’

Vernon, the defending RBC champions (won last year at Bear Mountain) and leaders in the BCHL with 38 wins, four losses (now five) and two ties, had only lost one other game on the road this season.

The Grizz entered the game in fifth place in the Coastal Conference with 23 wins, 14 losses and seven ties.

“I think our hitting intimidated them a bit,’’ said Gervais. “We also didn’t give them many scoring opportunities and when we did, our goaltender [Ryan Holfeld] was there to make some big saves.’’

Holfeld finished the night with 25 saves while rookie Blake Voth from Vernon suffered his first loss of the season.

Voth had a 12-0 record and three shutouts. He also had the best goals-against average at 1.23.

Mike Tebbutt, a rookie with the Grizz, opened the scoring at 14:38 of the first period on the power play. The 17-year-old Tebbutt, who was obtained from the Junior B Abbotsford Pilots, scored from just outside the crease for his second of the year in six games.

In the second period, the Grizz took a 3-0 lead on goals by captain Jordan Heywood and Mowrey four minutes apart. Mowrey tallied while his team was shorthanded with a great individual effort.

Former Grizz Jonathan Milhouse got the Vipers rolling when he scored on a partial breakaway after a defensive miscue at the Vernon blueline. Then Connor Jones brought Vernon to within one goal with a shorthanded effort on another partial breakaway.

OVERTIME: In the only other meeting of the season between the Vipers and the Grizz, Vernon posted an 8-2 victory at home . . . The Grizz return to action Wednesday at Bear Mountain against the Nanaimo Clippers. Game time is 7:15 p.m. The game is rescheduled from Oct. 31 when the Grizz had to postpone the game because of sickness. All tickets from Oct. 31 will be honoured on Wednesday . . . Rookie defenceman Sam Grist has been moved to forward in recent games. Last night, the 16-year-old played with Greg Simpson and Dylan Nowakowski . . . The Vipers knocked off the Clippers 5-4 on Friday in Nanaimo with a late thirdperiod goal.