Penticton Vees take control and put chill on Victoria Grizzlies

Brian Drewry / Times Colonist
NOVEMBER 17, 2018 09:58 PM

PENTICTON 4
VICTORIA 1

Back-to-back games on the road against top-five teams proved too steep a hurdle for the Victoria Grizzlies to overcome.

Fresh off a 6-3 win over the Coquitlam Express on Friday night that pushed the Grizzlies’ win streak to five games, Victoria trekked into the Okanagan on Saturday and ran into a rested and talented group of Penticton Vees. The home team used a three-goal second period to help cool off the Grizzlies (16-8-0-1) by a 4-1 score in front of 4,256 fans at the South Okanagan Events Centre.

The Vees (15-7-1-2), with 16 players committed to NCAA schools, posted their fifth win in their past six B.C. Hockey League games and improved their record on home ice to 11-2-1.

After Grizzlies defenceman Carter Berger scored his 13th goal of the season late in the first period to open the scoring, David Silye and Massimo Rizzo scored goals 48 seconds apart midway through the second to give the Vees control.

“The game got away from us in the second. We made a couple of mistakes in our own end and they capitalized and that ended up costing us,” said Grizzlies GM and head coach Craig Didmon, whose team remains in first place in the Island Division, seven points up on the Powell River Kings who were facing the Chilliwack Chiefs on Friday night.

The dagger into the back of the Grizzlies came courtesy Brendan Harrogate, who beat Victoria netminder Kurtis Chapman on a breakaway with 21 seconds left in the second period. Silye added an empty-netter with one second left in regulation.

The Grizzlies’ top line of projected 2019 NHL draft picks Alex Newhook and Alex Campbell and 2018 New York Rangers draft pick Riley Hughes was held off the scoresheet, but not for lack of trying. They were buzzing around the Vees’ net all night.

“Alex, Alex and Riley actually played a good game and were unlucky not to score,” added Didmon.

“But to beat the good teams in this league you need more than just your top line scoring and I think some of our younger players who were playing here for the first time were a little bit in awe of the atmosphere.”

Chapman finished with 27 saves, while fellow 20-year-old netminder Jack LaFontaine, a third-round NHL draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes, made 30 saves in the Vees’ net.

The Grizzlies are back at it today as they head to Vernon for a 2 p.m. game against the Vipers.

“Vernon is a team that has really been playing well lately and they’re a physical team so we’re going to have to be ready to go to battle,” Didmon said.

LOOSE PUCKS: The Grizzlies’ made some changes in their crease on Saturday, sending backup Keenan Rancier down to the Nanaimo Buccaneers of the VIJHL and picking up veteran netminder Kyle Dumba from the Surrey Eagles for a player development fee. The 20-year-old Dumba has spent time in the Western Hockey League with the Calgary Hitmen, Everett Silvertips and Regina Pats. . . . LaFontaine spent the Past two seasons at the University of Michigan, but decided to come to the BCHL to get more playing time. He plans to return to Michigan next season.