If they wanted any chance at home-ice advantage in the first round of the B.C. Hockey League playoffs, the Victoria Grizzlies knew they needed a win Saturday night against the Powell River Kings.
It was the proverbial must-win.
And that’s exactly what the Grizzlies did, downing the Kings 3-2 in front of 867 fans at The Q Centre.
The victory moves the Grizzlies (26-18-1-10) into second place in the Island Division, one point ahead of the Kings (26-20-1-9) and the Grizzlies hold a game in hand.
“As we get toward the playoffs, the guys see the games are bigger and they see the opportunity to get second place and home-ice advantage and they really played well,” said Grizzlies GM and coach Craig Didmon, whose club has three games remaining — Wednesday against Cowichan Valley in Duncan and then a home-and-home set against Nanaimo on Friday and Saturday.
The Grizzlies didn’t make things easy on themselves in the third period. After Dane Gibson tallied his team-leading 29th of the season early in the period to put the Grizzlies up 3-1, it looked like Victoria was home and cooled for their fourth straight win. But a four-minute high-sticking penalty to P.J. Conlon with 6:30 left in the final frame and a two-minute hit-to-the-head penalty to Zach Dixon with 2:30 remaining left the Grizzlies penalty-kill feeling the heat. Luckily for them, Michael Stiliadis picked the perfect time to have his best game as the Kings outshot the Grizzlies 14-5 in the third period.
“It was a little nerve-wracking but with the way our PK has been working lately we were confident we could pull it out,” said Grizzlies defenceman Jake Emilio, who tallied his ninth of the season in the second period when he jumped on a puck in the slot and flipped a backhand past Kings netminder Brett Magnus to give the Grizzlies a 2-1 lead.
“And Stili was unbelievable. A real wall back there. It was awesome to see.”
The Grizzlies’ power play only got two opportunities — both in the first period — while the Kings went 0-6 with the man advantage.
“The fact that we were able to kill four penalties late in the game, which forced our top scorers to sit for a while, showed the bench depth we have and that’s the sign of a good team,” Didmon said.
The Grizzlies opened the scoring midway through the first period courtesy of an Ayden MacDonald breakaway. Nick Halagian drew the Kings even midway through the second. Jarid Lukosevicius had the other Kings’ goal.
The Kings now finish the season with back-to-back home games against Alberni Valley next weekend. The fourth-place Bulldogs fell 4-2 to Penticton on Saturday.
LOOSE PUCKS: Scratches for the Grizzlies were injured forwards Garrett Forster (upper body) and Matt Kennedy (upper body).
