Colwood, BC ~ The Victoria Grizzlies used a two-goal night from Max Silver to power a 5-3 victory on Saturday night over the Sherwood Park Crusaders at the Q Centre in Colwood.
After a huge 6-5 overtime win last night, Victoria was riding high and hoping to build off that momentum, but it was Sherwood Park who jumped ahead in the first two minutes on a point shot that found its way through. After some deliberation from the officials about a possible goaltender interference, the goal stood, and the visitors had an early advantage.
Eight minutes later, Max Silver (4) took a nifty feed from Cooper Faughnan at the front of the net after he had sold a wrist shot to everyone, leaving Silver open for a tap-in to even the score. Divyne Apollon scored his first junior hockey league goal late in the frame on a Crusaders fast break to give them a one-goal lead heading into the second.
Victoria came out in the second period and got a tying goal from Niklas Karjalainen (3) on the power play after Apollon had taken two bad penalties in a row. Sherwood Park would take their third period of the game with a power play goal of their own at 11:34 of the second from Gleb Semenko.
It would then be all Grizzlies from their, scoring three goals in the final 7:30 of the second period. First it was Grizzly captain Landon Mackie (5) finishing off a two on one with Sam Rousseau before Max Silver (5) found his second of the game on a filthy breakaway backhand finish at 17:32. Owen Warnick (5) rounded out the scoring a minute and a half later, jamming a puck home at the side of the goal.
That 5-3 lead would stand up until the final buzzer, with Victoria killing two key penalties and Sherwood Park playing with six attackers due to pulling the goalie. Paolo Frasca was once again a rock inthe Grizzlies goal, making 42 saves on 45 shots while Jack Scali made 42 stops on 47 Grizzlies efforts.
Max Silver netted first star of the game while Cooper Faughnan’s two assist night netted him second star. Jude bray had two apples for the Cru’ and was given third star.
The 5-3 victory gave the Grizzlies a perfect weekend and a 7-4-0 record on the season, while winning four of their last five. They are back in action on Friday night from the Q Centre in Colwood for a rematch against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs before making the trip up Island to the Alberni Valley Multiplex the following night for a home-and-home.
