Well, that was special.
If you were the Alberni Valley Bulldogs.
The visiting squad scored twice on the power play and added a late short-handed goal to record a 6-3 win over the Victoria Grizzlies to even the best-of-seven B.C. Hockey League Island Division semifinals at The Q Centre on Wednesday night.
Unlike the opening 3-0 loss on Tuesday, the Bulldogs got their share of man advantages early and, more importantly for Alberni Valley, made them count.
The matchup heads to Port Alberni for Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Saturday.
Victoria went 1-for-5 on the man advantage in Game 1 and were an abysmal 1-for-9 on Wednesday. Alberni had just two power play chances in the opener, both in the third period with the second in the last 1:34.
The Bulldogs finished 2-for-4 in Game 2 and added the short-handed tally to dominate special teams.
“Going into the series we would be happy with the split and that’s what we got,” said Alberni assistant coach Adam Hayduk. “You want the officials to let the guys play and not determine the outcome, but the opportunities that we got on the power play — we weren’t going to turn those back.”
One sensed the chances would be scrutinized after the first game in which Victoria had five straight power-play opportunities.
“It’s too bad, because 5-on-5 we’re a good hockey club,” said Grizzlies head coach Craig Didmon. “It seemed like getting on the power play that many times got us a little off our game. It gets you off the bench as it’s hard to distribute the ice time.
“Special teams burned us tonight and we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
The Grizzlies paid for it in Game 2 as the Bulldogs flashed some teeth with the two power-play goals. The teams traded man-advantage tallies in the first period. Brandon Egli, on a blast from the point, for Victoria at 12:30 and Mitch Makin replied for the Bulldogs at 14:46 after defenceman Mitch Meek made a couple of blocks and goalie Nic Renyard made a pair of saves.
The puck just snuck by the Grizzlies’ netminder, who allowed his first goal of the young series.
Garret Forster jumped on a loose puck for Victoria to restore the lead at 15:50 of the first, but Tryg Strand added a second power-play goal for the Bulldogs at 7:32 of the second. Craig Martin then scored a pair for Alberni, sandwiched around a Myles Fitzgerald goal, as the Bulldogs led 4-3 after two.
Zak Bowles and Strand (short-handed) added breakaway goals in the third for Alberni and Connor LaCouvee made 37 saves.
IN THE DEN: Grizzlies defenceman Jaden Schmeisser sat out Game 2 with what is being called a lower body injury.
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