The Alberni Valley Bulldogs defeated the Victoria Grizzlies 4-2 on Friday night at the Q Centre and took both ends of the home and home set with the Grizzlies in the process.
After a red hot start on Wednesday at the Dawg Pound, the Bulldogs struck first again on Friday as Stephen Castagna opened the scoring at 9:11 of the opening frame. The Grizzlies would tie things up a couple of minutes later as Jack Gorton finished a pretty rush tucking it past Bulldogs starter Hobie Hedquist.
The Bulldogs would open some distance between themselves and the Grizzlies in the 2nd period as Castagna got his 2nd of the night before Brandon Buhr made it 3-1. Andrew Amousse cut the lead to 3-2 at 13:40 as he fired the puck far side on Hedquist on a 2-on-1 rush.
Josh Van Unen notched the only goal of the 3rd to put the game away. With the Bulldogs killing a 5 minute major penalty to Chase Klassen, Van Unen was hauled down on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot. Van Unen would make no mistake tucking past the Grizzlies goaltender Kyle Kelsey.
Hobie Hedquist stopped 26 of 28 Bulldogs shots in the win, while Kelsey stopped 29 of 33 in the loss for the Grizzlies.
The Bulldogs improved to 10-6-2-0 with the win and moved past the Grizzlies into 3rd place in the Coastal Conference. The loss dropped the Grizzlies record to 11-8-0-0.
The Bulldogs return home to the Dawg Pound tomorrow as they host the conference leading Langley Rivermen at 7:00 pm. Langley is 11-3-1-2 on the year.
THREE STARS
*** Andrew Amousse – VIC
** Stephen Castagna- AVB
* Josh Van Unen – AVB
