The Bulldogs have two games coming up this week with both of them being at home, as Victoria pays a visit to the Pound on Saturday night before the Dogs and Nanaimo Clippers meet for the final time this season on Sunday afternoon.
The Grizzlies enter this week with a record of 18-18-2 and 5, good for 7th place in the Coastal Conference, two points behind the Cowichan Valley Capitals and Powell River Kings for the final playoff spot up for grabs in the Coast. The Grizzlies are coming off a .500 road trip to the Mainland and Interior where they lost a tight game in Burnaby Friday night by a score of 3-2 before losing 2-1 in overtime to Westside Saturday night. The Grizzlies secured 3 out of 6 points with a 5-4 win over the Vernon Vipers Sunday afternoon. The Vipers would lead 1-0 after one before the Grizzlies took a 2-1 lead to the room after two with goals from Brad Reid 4:55 into the period and them Cam Reid 11:19 in, on the power play.
The Vipers kicked off a crazy third period scoring 14 seconds and three minutes in to all of a sudden lead 3-2. The Grizzles would take the lead back by scoring three in a row- Sean Robertson at 9:11, Andrew Pickering at 11:32 on the power play, and then finally Chris Markiewicz on the power play at 16:35 to put the Grizzlies up 5-3. The Vipers would get one more late as former Dog Isaac Smeltzer scored to make it 5-4 with 29 seconds to go, but that would be as close as they would get. The Vipers outshot the Grizzlies 31-19 with Matthew Wong and Anthony Manfredi being the goalies of record. Special teams were huge in this one, as the Grizzlies were 3 for 6 on the power play while the Vipers were 0 for 5.
The Grizzlies see action Friday night at home against the Nanaimo Clippers before they head up Island again to visit the Dogs on Saturday. The Grizzlies will probably have a bee in their bonnet when they face the Dogs, as they no doubt had a bad taste in their mouths after the Dogs stole a win away from them December 29th at the Bear Mountain Arena, as Daniel Moriarty tied the game up with 7.7 seconds to go before scoring to win it in overtime just 37 seconds in on a power play. Special teams were a factor in this one, as the Dogs were 1 for 6 on the power play while the Grizzlies were 2 for 7. David Aime was superb in picking up the win in goal.
While the Dogs enjoyed the most recent meeting between these two teams, they didn?t like the end result of the previous four, all Victoria wins. With three games left against the
Grizzlies this season, the Dogs still have a chance to even up the season series, but they need to look at the smaller picture and just focus on one game at a time. With the Grizzlies being the closest team to the Dogs in the standings, this game is an absolute MUST win if the Dogs have playoff aspirations. The Grizzlies are always a dangerous team who can move the puck well and can go from offense to defence in a hurry. While Matthew Wong wasn?t the difference in the most recent game these teams played, he WAS the difference the previous four so plenty of traffic and plenty of shots are a must.
Last but certainly not least, is the news of the Grizzlies making several deals leading up to the trade deadline Thursday night at 6pm. The first deal saw Grant Toulmin to the Prince George Spruce Kings for future considerations. A second trade saw the Grizzlies pick up Jordan Zalba from the Merritt Centennials for future considerations. The third and final deal for GM Jackson Penny saw him move Chris Markiewicz to the Trail Smoke Eaters for forward Chris Santiago.
Saturday?s pregame show hits the airwaves at 6:45pm with the puck drop and the play-by-play just after 7:00. Catch all the action on your radio on 93.3 The Peak FM or on your computer through the BCHL Fanzone at www.bchl.bc.ca
Saturdays game with have a group of special guests attending and taking to the ice during Intermission, as the ?Abashiri North stars?, visiting all the way from Port Alberni?s sister city of Abashiri, Japan will take on a Port Alberni Minor Hockey house league team.
Sunday afternoon marks the final meeting between the Nanaimo Clippers and the Bulldogs this season, with the Clippers leading the season series 6 wins to 2, winning the last four head-to-head match ups.
The last two meetings were a particularly tough time for the Dogs as going into the games they made huge trades seeing two three year vets in Isaac Smeltzer and Evan Michalchuk moved, along with a two year veteran in Sawyer Eichel. At first look the results weren?t promising- back to back 7-1 losses to the Clippers November 30th and December 1st.
However, once everyone got in the line up and once the coaching staff had a week to get everyone on the same page, it?s tough to argue that this was the biggest turning point in the season just going by the way that the new look team has played since that point.
The Clippers ended December with a tough road trip to the Interior where they dropped 2 of 3 games. Returning home to the Island wasn?t a remedy to their struggles either, as after a 4-2 loss to the Cowichan Valley Capitals on Wednesday the Clippers are now riding a very rare three game losing streak on home ice and they have now lost 5 of their last 6 overall. Wednesday night it would be the Clippers who came out and got on the board first, with Brodie Zuk scoring from Mikael Bedard and Andrew Cherniwchan 8:20 in. Before the first was out the Caps would tie it up though, with Mickey Spencer finding the net on the power play in the dying minutes of the period. Just one minute into the second the Capitals found the net again for the only goal of the period and a 2-1 lead into the third. The crucial next goal would also go to the Caps, again early in the period, as Josh Clare scored 36 seconds off the third period puck drop for a 3-1 Cowichan lead. The Clippers would make a game of it when Justin Favreau scored on the power play from Carson Schell with 7:32 to play to make it 3-2 Caps, but Clinton Pettapiece would find the net just 2:20 later to put the Capitals up 4-2 and stop any Clipper comeback attempt. Final shots favoured Nanaimo 31-28. Michael Garman took the loss in goal for the Clippers. The Clippers were 1 for 6 on the power play; the Caps were 1 for 8.*
*Apparently the final score of this game was actually 5-3. I can only go by the official source for scores and box scores, that being the BCHL website where I procured the above scoring summary.
While the Clippers didn?t add to their roster through any deadline deals on Thursday, they did add several players from Junior B and Major Midget. Port Alberni born forward Colton Cyr, now claimed as a Nanaimo Minor Hockey product, has joined the Clippers after playing with the North Island Silvertips of the BC Major Midget Hockey League. Cyr had seen action with the Clippers earlier in the season as an AP. Also joining the Clippers is forward Dustin Johnson, from the Summerland Stin
