Nanaimo, BC ~ The Victoria Grizzlies defeated the Nanaimo Clippers 3-1 at the Frank Crane Arena in Nanaimo on Friday night, using a perfect eight-for-eight night while shorthanded to propel them to their 21st win of the season.
The first period started with one of the wackiest strings of play you will ever see. 41 seconds in, Jack Kohlmann opened the scoring for the Grizzlies with his first in the BCHL on a nice, patient deke to the forward, sliding it into an empty goal. On the same play, the linesman brought a possible double-minor high-stick infraction against the Grizzlies to the officials’ attention, and, upon further review, it was confirmed. The Grizzlies found themselves down a player for four minutes but up 1-0 on the scoreboard at the same point. A great penalty kill saw them escape unscathed.
Moments after they got through that PK, a fabulous passing play between four Grizzlies saw them go up 2-0 at 5:40. Max Anderson fed a no look feed down to the half wall for Artur Gross who hit Reece Gault diving down from the right point who then in turn found Maddux Martin at the back post for about as nice of a sequence as you will ever see. 2-0 Grizzlies after twenty.
The second period was a penalty-filled affair that saw both teams head to their respective sin bin for significant amounts of time. Victoria was shorthanded twice, including a minute-long five-on-three, and Nanaimo was without a skater on three separate occasions. The two squads powerplay numbers took a beating, with no one lighting the lamp with an advantage.
The lone goal of the second came from Hayden Fechner (25th) for Nanaimo, who stole a puck at the Clippers’ line and moved in on a breakaway, beating Mikus Vecvanags under the blocker on a deke to the forehand. 2-1 Grizzlies after forty minutes.
Victoria locked things down in the third period, once again being heavily penalized. They killed off three Nanaimo powerplays in the third, giving the Clippers an ugly 0/8 line on the man advantage in this contest.
The Clippers showed some frustration at the end, with Sam Boisvert getting a five-minute major and game misconduct for boarding Grizzly forward Max Anderson right in front of the Grizzlies’ bench. Moments later, Jack Rimmer mugged Reece Gault, again out of frustration, resulting in a five-on-three too close out the game for Victoria.
Artur Gross got a cross-ice pass from Matthew Jenken with that aforementioned two-man-advantage, and he wired it home with 30 seconds left for his 16th of the season, making it 3-1 late. That score line would stand up to help the Grizzlies knock off their Island rivals and improve to 21-21-2 on the season.
Mikus Vecvanags, as is expected at this point, was once again very good for Victoria between the pipes. He scored 27 of Nanaimo’s 28 shots and was named first star. Artur Gross’s goal and assist game gave him the second star, while Hayden Fechner got the lone Nanaimo goal, giving him the third star.
Victoria is back in action tomorrow night at home at the Q Centre in Colwood with the Cowichan Valley Capitals visiting for another possible first-round matchup pre-show. Tickets are available by CLICKING HERE.
