VICTORIA GRIZZLIES HOPING FOR FULL ROSTER OF HOCKEY TEAM AT CRUNCH TIME

With just 10 regular-season games remaining and first place in the Island Division virtually locked up, the Victoria Grizzlies will be looking to manage themselves a little more tightly over the next few weeks.

With three games in three days this weekend in Langley, Salmon Arm and Vernon, and still without a full roster, general manager and head coach Bill Bestwick will not tempt fate by pushing the team to the brink.

“I’d like to think that we’ll have a full roster going into the weekend, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen yet,” he said.

“We’re just going to take it one game at a time, one period at a time — the old clichés, right, and see how things shake out,” he added. “If we can come back Sunday night healthy and with a few points in our back pocket, then it’ll have been a successful weekend.”

Turner Lawson did return to the lineup in Tuesday’s 7-4 win over Powell River that improved the team’s first-place overall record to 31-9-0-6.

Yes, No. 1 overall still remains the goal, so as to provide home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs, but Bestwick doesn’t intend on bringing anyone back too early.

Kade Pilton sat out with the flu on Tuesday and could be back at some point this weekend. Gerry Fitzgerald, a key component, is still injured and remains out. Mark McLellan, David Walchuk and Brett Hartskamp are all day-to-day with nagging aches.

Mike Stiliadis will likely start in goal tonight and Sunday, with Brady Rouleau, who won on Tuesday, back in net on Saturday.

“I’d like to see us come out with a couple of wins and healthy,” stressed Bestwick. “Three wins and injuries or suspensions will be the worst thing that can happen to us right now.”

And he wants to see better efforts in the third periods of games, unlike the last two at home against Powell River where the Grizzlies were sloppy defensively, allowing the Kings to get back into games.

“We talked about the third periods, it’s not our opponent and what he does, it’s how we conduct ourselves and I didn’t like the way we conducted ourselves [Tuesday],” said Bestwick.

mannicchiarico@timescolonist.com

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