The Bulldogs wrapped up their Regular Season Saturday night when they travelled down to Victoria to face the Grizzlies. The Dogs were on their heels early as the Grizzlies came out hard while the Dogs seemed to be a step behind. The Dogs would end up finding the net on their first shot of the game as they connected on the power play when Teal Burns took a pass from Eric Walker on the right wing before setting up Chase Paylor in the slot, where he made a quick move before snapping one past the blocker arm of Brady Rouleau. The Dogs couldn’t keep the momentum as just 18 seconds later it was a 1-1 game as the Grizzlies tied it on a rebound off a wrap around that as stopped by Jay Deo, but David Mazurek squeaked the rebound under his glove. Assists on the play went to Myles Fitzgerald and Zach Urban at 9:08 of the first. Things would get ugly late in the period with the Grizzlies appearing to target several Bulldog players, or that’s how it looked from a Bulldog point of view. With the Bulldogs on the power play Ryan Lough took a hit to the head behind the net as he sent the puck out to Evan Tironese on the right wing. He in turn fed Kurt Gosselin at the point where he beat Rouleau with a one-timer top shelf, glove side. The celebration was muted as Ryan Lough remained down on the ice, leading to a Major Penalty to Blake Thompson for a blow to the head. The period would end with another blow to the head on Ryan Lough, resulting in another Bulldog power play to start the second.
The Dogs made quick work on the 5 on 3 power play to start the second, going up 3-1 when Matt Hansen found Jared Wilson at the top of the right circle where he put a one-timer into the middle of the net with Grizzlies goalie Brady Rouleau being taken out with Nick Kerr tied up in front of the net with a Grizzlies defender. Ryan Lough also picked up an assist on the play 30 seconds into the period. The Dogs went back to the power play shortly afterwards and again connected to lead 4-1 as Chase Van Allen carried the puck behind the net and was tripped up, resulting in Hunter Stewart finding a loose puck at the side of the net and centering to Ryan Lough at the top of the crease where he one-timed it home at 4:13 of the second. The Grizzlies went to the man advantage immediately following the goal, and while the Dogs killed it the Grizzlies found the net shortly afterwards as Myles Fitzgerald roofed a loose puck from in tight top corner glove side on Deo. Brett Hartkamp and David Mazurek drew the assists at 7:56 of the second. The Grizzlies went to the power play immediately after the goal and connected on it to make it a 4-3 game just 1:03 later as Myles Fitzgerald scored his second of the game from Zach Urban and Keyler Bruce at 8:59. The scoring slowed down for a while, but some of the rough stuff came back through the back half of the second. The Grizzlies would connect on the power play late in the period on a deflection of a point shot that hit the post and then dribbled in, with Brett Hartskamp getting credit for it. Assists went to Kade Pilton and Jaden Schmeisser at 19:35 of the second.
The Bulldogs would go to the power play early in the third period after Myles Fitzgerald was called for goalie interference after running over Jay Deo. The Bulldogs would connect on the man advantage for the eventual game winner when Evan Tironese and Hunter Stewart worked the puck around before finding Chase Van Allen at the line where he scored on a quick release wrist shot through traffic from the left point to make it 5-4 at 3:19 of the third. The only goal the rest of the way came with just over five minutes left in regulation time after a fantastic hard working shift in the Grizzlies zone saw Mitch Crisanti knock the puck loose to Nick Kerr, who in turn fed the puck back to the left point for Jared Wilson. He would throw a low hard shot on net that was deflected home by Zach Funk in the slot. Assists on the play went to Jared Wilson and Nick Kerr at 14:35 for the 6-4 final. Of note is that Zack Funk scored both the first goal in Game 1 of the Dogs season at the Showcase in Chilliwack, and the last goal of the season in Game 56 in Victoria.
Final shots favoured the Grizzlies 30-19 with Jay Deo picking up the win splitting duties with Brad Rebagliati, while Brady Rouleau took the loss splitting time with Michael Stiliadis. The Dogs went 5 for 7 on the power play while the Grizzlies went 2 for 8.
