Vernon, BC ~ The Victoria Grizzlies visit the Vernon Vipers tonight from the Kal Tire Place in the first of a three game road trip.
The Grizzlies are coming off a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime loss at the hands of the Langley Rivermen on Saturday night in a game in which they felt like they deserved a better fate. Victoria outshot Langley 59 to 29 in that contest and led 2-0 halfway through the match.
The Grizzlies now sit in 5th in the Coastal Conference with a respectable 6-4-2 record.
Vernon on the other hand had an abysmal start to their season and had a 0-5-1 record through the first six games of their campaign. They have seemed to have turned things around as of late however and are 4-2-1 in their last six for a record of 4-7-2 through the first 13 games of the season. They are still 10th out of 11 in the Interior Conference however sitting only above Blackfalds who has just two wins this year.
The Grizzlies only see the Vipers once a year due to post conference scheduling so head to head matchups with this Vernon team are both hard to predict and next to impossible to project based off of previous meetings. Vernon won the lone meeting last year 6-4 at the Q Centre on February 9, 2024. The last time Victoria was here was October 8, 2022 (over two years ago) when the Grizzlies fell 2-1 in shootouts. Jack Gorton was the lone goal scorer in that game.
Victoria has not beaten Vernon since October 28, 2021 in a 6-5 overtime win from the Q Centre. The Grizzlies are 2-2-1 against the Vipers in their last five meetings.
Players To Watch
Chase Pirtle is in prime form for the Grizzlies right now. The Far Hills, New Jersey native has eight points in his last six games with four of those points being goals. He is also riding a mini three games point streak with four points in that span. The goal scorer could easily have 4-5 more goals this year but has been on the wrong end of some bad puck luck this year.
Easton Kovacs had his best game as a Grizzly on Saturday night against the Rivermen. He scored his first Grizzlies and BCHL goal while also blocking a shot and having four efforts on goal. The 20 year old Western Hockey League veteran is averaging 20:20 of ice time this year in a shut down role.
Shea Busch has been the Vipers best player this year and was rightly named to the NHL Central Scouting list of possible draft picks in the upcoming 2025 NHL Draft. The 2007 born North Vancouver native has being staying hot recently with eight goals already this year and 12 points as well. The Penn State commit will be sure to be dangerous.
How To Follow Along?
As always you can watch the action on floHockey the official broadcasting partner of the BCHL. To listen live for free with voice of the Grizzlies, Tom Wilke, click here to tune into the Grizzlies Radio Network on mixLR.