Saturday, October 17, 2015 – Submitted by Mario Annicchiarico / Times Colonist
The snake-bitten Victoria Grizzlies finally found a way to break through on Friday night.
Down 2-1 early in the third period, the low-scoring B.C. Hockey League club received three goals 1:52 apart from Cole Pickup, Chuck Bennis and Kevin Massy to record just their second win of the season and improve to 2-8-0-2.
Massy had a pair for the Grizzlies, who defeated the visiting Powell River Kings 5-2 at The Q Centre.
Having out-shot the Kings 29-14 after the first two periods, the Grizzlies finally cashed in after producing several scoring opportunities in the opening 40 minutes of play.
Victoria’s No. 1 line of Brayden Gelsinger, P.J. Conlon and Cole Pickup had the run of the play, reunited as a trio, but just couldn’t buy a goal until the 3:57 mark of the third. Pickup followed up the play to poke in a rebound after Gelsinger was stopped by Kings netminder Stefan Wornig.
Bennis then blew a slap shot by Wornig just 23 seconds later before Massy snuck another one by at 5:49.
No one could be more relieved than Grizzlies’ head coach and general manager Craig Didmon, whose team was averaging just 1.82 goals a game.
“Definitely relieved,” said Didmon. “Hard work finally paid off for the guys. I thought we were the better team out there, for sure, tonight. It’s great for their confidence to beat the No. 1 team in the league.”
The Kings fall to 10-4-0-0, as they were tied with Penticton for the league lead with 20 points entering the night.
Not only had the inability to score become a broken record, it was developing into a sad hurting tune for the hosts.
“A lot of the game was a carbon copy of some of the tough losses we’ve had. To light it up in the third period and have guys score goals, who you knew could score goals, was helpful,” said Didmon.
Gavin Rauser opened the scoring for Powell River at 8:39 of the first period. It was the ninth time Victoria had surrendered the first goal of a game, but Massy tied it for the Grizzlies with 10.2 seconds remaining in the opening stanza.
Liam Lawson buried the Kings’ second goal shortly after an unsuccessful 2-on-1 break for the hosts midway through the second period.
The third period was all Victoria as rookie Keyvan Mokhtari added the fifth goal of the night. Defenceman Cody Van Lierop, Gelsinger and Tyler Welsh each had two assists on the evening and goalie Matthew Galajda made 21 saves for his first ever BCHL win. Wornig made 34 stops.
mannicchiarico@timescolonist.com
