Victoria Grizzlies News

KINGS TAKE STRANGLEHOLD IN RACE FOR SECOND PLACE

KINGS TAKE STRANGLEHOLD IN RACE FOR SECOND PLACE

February 17, 2010 Cleve Dheensaw ©Times Colonist -

The Powell River Kings took a big swipe at the Victoria Grizzlies last night and in the process likely snared second place in the B.C. Hockey League Coastal Conference.

The 4-2 victory over the Grizzlies before 615 fans at the Powell River Recreation Complex put the Kings (35-16-7) three points ahead of Victoria. Each team has two games remaining in the regular season, meaning in order to finish second, the Grizzlies will have to win both, while hoping the Kings lose their final pair of games.

Victoria can help its own cause in that regard when the Grizzlies and Kings meet again Friday at Bear Mountain Arena before Victoria closes its regularseason account Saturday at the Bear against the Cowichan Valley Capitals.

The Grizzlies (33-17-8) are now looking at a likely first-round best-of-seven playoff match-up against the sixth-place Nanaimo Clippers (24-25-10) while Powell River, if it clinches second, will face seventhplace Cowichan Valley (2332-3).

The fourth and fifth seeds, Langley and Surrey, appear headed for an allLower Mainland first-round series.

There remains a slight possibility Victoria could be overtaken by Langley for third spot if the Grizzlies lose out to end the season and the Chiefs win their three remaining games. In that case, Victoria would play Surrey in the first round.

The Coastal regular-season champion Alberni Valley Bulldogs (44-11-3) have drawn a first-round bye while last-place Burnaby will miss the post-season dance.

Forward Alex Allan, headed next season to NCAA AlabamaHuntsville, got the Grizzlies off to a fast start yesterday just 20 seconds into the game. It didn’t take long, however, for Brenden Forbes to pull the Kings level at 3:51.

Jordan Grant of Powell River then embarked on the natural hat-trick with consecutive goals at 10:22 of the first period and 11:57 and 16:57 of the second, the latter on the power play.

Spencer Copp scored for the Grizzlies with 15 seconds remaining in the game. Copp and Allan finished with two points each on the night.

The Kings swept the three-star awards with Grant, Mat Bodie and Chad Niddery taking the honours.

Powell River goaltender Josh Watson, also headed to the NCAA, stopped 30 shots for the win. Ryan Holfeld, a Memorial Cup finalist in his major-junior days with Medicine Hat, parried 35 shots in goal for Victoria.

The Kings were 50 per cent on the odd-man advantage in their two chances while Victoria went 0-5.

“We’ve been playing a lot of teams below us in the standings recently, who are under .500, and tonight we played a team above .500 that competes very hard,” said Grizzlies head coach Vic Gervais. “We played down to level of the previous teams we played. Now we know we have to get up to this level.”

Gervais said he is wary of both Nanaimo and Cowichan Valley as the playoffs approach.

“It’s the playoffs and every teams will play hard,” he said.