Above Photo: Kyle Robinson Photography
Victoria, BC ~ The Victoria Grizzlies fell 3-2 in overtime on Saturday evening from the Q Centre in front of 1,345 fans after finding a dramatic late goal in the third to send the game to overtime.
The first period saw some scrambly play to start with the Grizzlies shaking out two weeks of rust with time off from the all-star break.
They would find their legs early however with Tobias Pitka finishing off a nice two on one pass and snapshot play with Tom Molson at 6:38. Pitka’s 10th of the year nestled itself into the top left corner and Chase Pirtle got the secondary assist giving him 45 points on the year and extending his point streak to ten games.
Into the second period the game would go and it was Langley with the lone tally of the frame. Jackson Potulny would finish off a nice three way passing play with Dalton MacGillvray and Davids Livsics on the powerplay making it a 1-1 game after forty.
In the third period Ryan Schelling took a pass in the slot from Dalton MacGillvray and fired it low glove on Oliver Auyeung-Ashton to give Langley their first lead of the night. The Grizzlies would pull the goalie late in the period to try and find an equalizer. They did just that with Tobias Pitka’s second of the game just barely squeaking under the right arm of Xander Miceli and over the line.
This game needed overtime and unfortunately for Victoria, the officials missed an interference in the extra period which led to Langley scoring on the ensuing play. The Grizzlies bench was rightly upset however the game was over and Langley went home with a 3-2 overtime win for the second time this year in Victoria.
Tobias Pitka was named first star of the game while Langley’s MacGillvray and Miceli were second and third stars respectively.
The Grizzlies are back in action next weekend against first Nanaimo on Friday at the Frank Crane Arena in Nanaimo before returning home to host the Prince George Spruce Kings on Saturday night.