For just the third time this season, the Victoria Grizzlies have lost two straight games.
Steen Cooper’s goal, at 2:30 of overtime, gave the Cowichan Valley Capitals a 3-2 victory at the Island Savings Centre in Duncan on Wednesday night.
The Grizzlies blew two one-goal leads, allowing the tying marker by Kyle Horsman with just 2:34 to go in the third period.
The last time the Grizzlies had lost two consecutive games was Nov. 2 and 9 when the Island Division leaders dropped 3-1 and 5-4 decisions, respectively, to the Capitals and West Kelowna. Victoria also lost back-to-back outings back on Sept. 28-29.
“Not the result we were looking for,” said Grizzlies head coach and general manager Bill Bestwick. “We let them hang around and hang around.
“We had done a real good job of not losing two in a row, but clearly this is not the start we were looking for in the second half of the season.”
The Grizzlies had lost 6-4 to Nanaimo on Saturday.
On Wednesday, Victoria opened the scoring as David Mazurek tallied 12:05 into the game. Jesse Neher evened it up at 1-1 at 17:21 of the second, but Myles Fitzgerald sent the visitors to the room with a 2-1 lead just 48 seconds later.
The Grizzlies outshot the hosts 37-27. Brady Rouleau was in net for Victoria, while Connor LaCouvee started for Cowichan.
| SCORING SUMMARY |
| PERIOD 1 |
| Victoria Grizzlies at 12:05 – David Mazurek from Stefan Nicholishen and Turner Lawson |
| PERIOD 2 |
| Cowichan Valley Capitals at 17:21 – Jesse Neher from Rylan Bechtel and Luke Gordon |
| Victoria Grizzlies at 18:09 – Myles Fitzgerald from Leo Fitzgerald |
| PERIOD 3 |
| Cowichan Valley Capitals at 17:26 – Kyle Horsman from Dane Gibson and Karver Everson |
| OVERTIME PERIOD 1 |
| Cowichan Valley Capitals at 2:30 – Steen Cooper from Teal Burns |
