Looking for a piece of first place in the B.C. Hockey League on Sunday afternoon, the Victoria Grizzlies had to settle for being second best in a 3-2 loss to the streaking Penticton Vees.
Brett Beauvais scored the game-winner on a power play midway through the third period in a matchup between the league-leading Vees — who won for the eighth straight time to improve to 24-7-1-3 — and No. 2 Victoria (now 22-9-3-2).
Duncan native Steen Cooper, recently traded to Penticton, tied it at 2-2 on another Penticton power play at 15:41 of the second for the visitors at Bear Mountain Arena.
It was a tight, back-and-forth affair that lived up to its billing as a battle for No. 1.
“I think we’re a team to beat so we’re going to get everybody’s A-game every night,” said Grizzlies head coach Craig Didmon. “We’re not getting anybody’s average game, including Penticton’s today.
“There was a lot on the line there for first place and it was a great hockey game. I’m not ashamed with what we put forth.”
The Grizzlies were, however, a tad undisciplined against the Vees, whose power play was solid through the afternoon, going 2-for-7, but it may as well have been 3-for-7 as Brad McClure scored just three seconds after their first power play had ended, at 3:19 of the opening period.
The Vees also had a 5-on-3 power play just over midway through the first, but it was keenly killed off by the Grizzlies, who then struck on their own 5-on-3 opportunity with Gerry Fitzgerald recording his 22nd of the season.
Chris Albertini gave Victoria a 2-1 lead at 8:17 of the second, but the momentum switched shortly after when Patrick Sexton caught Grizzlies’ forward Jesse Schwartz with his head down at centre ice.
What looked like a charge, and possibly a hit to the head, went unscathed. Albertini came to Schwartz’s defence and was tagged for a minor.
“It looked like it was intended for the head on the video, so we’ll take a look at it,” Didmon said of the hit. “It was a tough hockey play.
“It hurt that line a little bit. Those three play so well together and Jesse is a big part of the hockey club, so it might have changed it a bit,” Didmon said of the loss of Schwartz, who plays with Gerry and Myles Fitzgerald.
“I thought the discipline was maybe the one dent in our armour today. I blame that on the high level of emotion with everything that has gone on this week. The guys wanted to win real bad and this is somethig that we will learn from,” said Didmon. “We took too many penalties that we just didn’t have to take. When that happens, you give them odds and the odds were that they got one more goal.”
No one was questioning Albertini’s penalty as he came to Schwartz’s aid.
“We got caught up in penalties, we were a little undisciplined, so maybe that’s something we fix for next weekend,” Albertini said of the result.
“Schultzy is one of our top players and it definitely affected us without his scoring. It happens and you have to stick up for your teammate.”
Which the tough defenceman did. The hit did steal momentum away from the Grizzlies, who return to action Friday at home against Trail.
Both Victoria and Penticton were playing its third games in three days. The Vees were also playing their fourth in a five-day stretch, while the Grizzlies played four in six days during a busy stretch of the season.
mannicchiarico@timescolonist.com
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