Above Photo: Malcolm Green attacks the net during Saturday night’s contest (Kyle Robinson Photography)
Victoria, BC ~ The Grizzlies took the lead halfway through the first period after Tom Molson found the top left corner for his eighth of the season. Sam Ward held the line on the right side and skipped past a check before finding Tom Molson who made no mistake.
Oliver Auyeung-Ashton was splendid for Victoria in the first making 13 saves including a ten beller robbing a Spruce King with the net open with 10:40 gone in the first.
The second period was a much more entertaining frame which saw Victoria jump up by two early with Dan D’Allesandro (3rd) finding the back of the goal at 1:57 after a centering feed from Seamus Latta.
The Grizzlies would then have two quick strikes from first Reegan Hiscock at 11:09 for his 18th on a nice shot to the top corner and then Landon Mackie banging in a rebound for his 12th 38 seconds later.
Brock Cummings answered back for Prince George at 12:56 on a one timer from Kazumo Sasaki.
The game would then get a bit ugly. Julian Cull would throw a hit in the near corner of the Prince George zone which saw an arm go up from the officials to indicate a penalty. Prince George’s Isaac Holt would respond with a vicious cross check to the face of Cull in defense of his teammate. The two would fight with Holt forcing Cull into the bout. Holt received five minutes for fighting, five minutes for cross-checking, two minutes for instigating and a game misconduct. Cull would receive five minutes for fighting and a two minute minor for cross checking.
The Grizzlies headed to a five minute major powerplay where Prince George couldn’t keep themselves out of the box. First Owen Goodbrand took a tripping penalty and four seconds later Trent LeDrew took a two minute minor for roughing, giving the Grizzlies two full five on three power plays on which they would score on both.
First it was Sam Ward firing a one timer home for his second of the year from Tom Molson and Tobias Pitka and then Finn Kallay banked a puck home for his fifth from Ward and Brody Juck making it six to one Grizzlies heading to the third period.
There was no scoring in the third to speak of but Victoria was certainly irked by the vicious cross check that Isaac Holt was thrown out of the game for. They would play extra physical in the third to drive the point home.
With the resounding 6-1 victory the Grizzlies improve to 21-9-6 on the season and sit second in the Coastal Conference with a one point lead on Surrey. The Grizzlies also have a game in hand on the Eagles.
Victoria is back in action next weekend with a home game on Friday against the Nanaimo Clippers and then a meeting with the Cowichan Valley Capitals on Saturday in Cowichan.
