For the fifth time this season, the Victoria Grizzlies have come away empty-handed in Powell River.
The latest loss — a 5-2 defeat on Friday at Hap Parker Arena — was the most important as the host Kings assumed a 2-1 best-of-seven lead in the opening B.C. Hockey League series. Game 4 goes tonight at 7:15 in Powell River, followed by Game 5 on Sunday at 4 p.m. on the Sunshine Coast.
Victoria’s big guns remain quiet three games into the matchup, while Powell River’s top players got their points across again on Friday. Jacob Pritchard had two goals and two assists; Jarid Lukosevicius had a pair of tallies; Kurt Keats had a goal and two assists; and Brent Lashuk collected two helpers.
Dane Gibson — who was named player of the month earlier in the day after amassing 10 goals and 13 assists in 11 games — is still looking for his first point of the series, and he’s not alone.
There are nine Grizzlies with goose eggs for point totals (including Thomas Gobeil, Jake Emilio and captain Shawn McBride) and only four — Ayden MacDonald, Kevin Massy, Brett Gruber and Chris Harpur — have two points as the Kings have out-scored the Grizzlies 13-6 overall.
Kings goalie Brett Magnus stood tall, facing 49 shots.
Lukosevicius opened the scoring just 1:37 into the game in a period that was dominated, at least shot wise, by the Grizzlies, who fired 19 pucks at Magnus. Grizzlies netminder Mike Stiliadis faced 11 in the opening stanza and then allowed another goal early in the second as Pritchard sneaked one through his legs. Gruber finally snapped the shutout streak midway through the third and MacDonald added a late one.
IN THE DEN: The Grizzlies welcomed Garrett Forster back from injury as he took Spencer Hunter’s place in the lineup.
