Cranbrook, BC ~ The Victoria Grizzlies have made the trip east to take on the Cranbrook Bucks tonight at 6:00 PM PT (7:00 PM MT) tonight from the Western Financial Place for their first and lone meeting of the season.
These cross conference matchups rarely have as much riding on them as tonight’s game does. On the Grizzlies side, they have fallen to third place in the Coastal Conference after a Surrey win on Sunday night meaning that the Grizzlies have two games in hand while being down by one point. On the other side of the BCHL, the Cranbrook Bucks have lost two in a row and are now five points out of home ice advantage in the first round. They look to right the ship this evening.
Victoria goes into tonight looking for a couple of members of their squad to step up in a big way as they will be a little short handed. They will be without; Will Schumacher, Tobias Pitka and Dan D’Alessandro. Schumacher is still dealing with a lower body injury while Dan D’Alessandro suffered an upper body injury on Saturday night at home against Nanaimo. Tobias Pitka did not travel due to academic obligations.
On the other end of the ice, Victoria will have to be aware of the BCHL leading goal scorer who will wear number 24. Rasmus Svartstrom, the Helsinki, Finland native, has had an unbelievable 20 year old season in the BCHL. Svartstrom has 40 goals and 56 points in 47 games this year.
Tonight’s game is available on the Grizzlies Radio Network on mixLR as well as viewing on floHockey with Tom Wilke, voice of the Grizzlies.
