The Alberni Valley Bulldogs erased a five-goal 3rd-period deficit to force OT with the Grizzlies before ultimately coming up a goal short in the shootout and suffering a 9-8 SO loss in what could mildly be described as one of the wildest BCHL hockey games in recent memory.

The Grizzlies shot out of the cannon in the first period, led by the play of Cody Monds.  Before the Bulldogs realized the game was well underway, the Grizzlies had built themselves a 5-0 lead.  Caige Sterzer managed to get the Bulldogs on the board in the final minute of the first period in what turned out to be a fairly important marker, even if it didn’t seem so at the time.

In the 2nd period, the Bulldogs got markers from Jimmy Rayhill and the newly acquired Oak Mcleod.  While play evened itself out a bit in the 2nd, the Bulldogs still found themselves trailing 7-3 through 40 minutes.  Cody Monds added his 4th of the night in the period to add a little insult to injury for the reeling Bulldogs.

The game appeared to be put away in the 3rd period as Chase McInnis scored a breakaway goal 5:05 into the period to give the Grizzlies a 5 goal advantage at 8-3 with just 14:44 to play in the game.

*Cue dramatic comeback music

The Bulldogs responded at 5:28 as Dawson Tritt scored a PP goal to make it 8-4.

As a Bulldogs penalty expired, Stephen Castagna made it 8-5 as he snapped one past Justin Easter at 12:08.

At 13:18 Chase Klassen made it 8-6 on a power play and that would be it for Easter as he was replaced by Blake Wood at the Grizzlies time-out.

While the time-out slowed things down momentarily the Bulldogs summoned some last-minute magic.

With Luke Pearson on the bench for the extra-attacker, Chase Klassen made it an 8-7 game with just 21 seconds remaining.  Off the ensuing face-off, the Bulldogs won the draw, got the puck deep and Brandon Buhr found a loose puck at the side of the goal with just 11 seconds left on the clock to even things at 8-8 and send the teams to OT.

Add it all up and the Bulldogs scored 5 unanswered 3rd-period goals in the most unlikely of comebacks considering the way the game started.

In OT, Luke Pearson stole the show including a penalty-shot save on Connor Eddy.  After being hung out to dry by his teammates on several 1st-period markers, Pearson dug deep and stopped 18 of the 19 shots he saw.

Ellis Rickwood would get the only goal of the shootout and the Grizzlies escaped the Q Centre with a 9-8 shootout win.

Stephen Castagna was the top producer for the Bulldogs with a goal and 4 assists.

The Bulldogs pre-season record falls to 2-4-0-1 with the loss and will now host the Nanaimo Clippers on Saturday night at the Dawg Pound.