The Cowichan Valley Capitals, at the foot of the Coastal Conference table in the sa国际传媒 Hockey League, are playing for their season survival.
Head coach Brian Passmore’s Caps (12-26-5) are ninth and one point behind the Powell River Kings and Coquitlam Express in the race for the final playoff spot in the conference.
The Caps have it all to play for tonight at the Q Centre against the Victoria Grizzlies, who have not clinched a playoff position, but are comfortably in in fifth place at 24-19.
The Langley Rivermen (30-11-3), Alberni Valley Bulldogs (28-12-4) and Nanaimo Clippers (26-15-2) are the three Coastal Conference clubs that have assured themselves playoff berths.
The Grizzlies will try to hone in this weekend at home against the Caps and on the road Saturday in Coquitlam against the Express.
Cowichan Valley appears revived and comes into the Q Centre tonight with points in six of its past 10 games in a 3-3-4 stretch, and with four players committed to NCAA Division 1 schools — Aidan Cobb to Cornell, Luke Haymes to Dartmouth, David Jacobs to Princeton and Adam Jeffrey to the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The Grizzlies answer with nine NCAA Division 1 commits, including UConn-bound rookie sensation Matthew Wood, projected highly for the 2023 NHL draft and leading the BCHL in points, with 70, and goals, with 39 in 35 games played.
The Grizzlies are 7-3 in their past 10 games, however, and have issues on the injury front with Connor Eddy and Isack Bandu, both committed to NCAA Division 1 Northern Michigan, and AIC-bound Andrew Amousse hobbled.
The Grizzlies are 5-0 against the Capitals this season to continue their dominance of 26-9-1 over the past five seasons in the Malahat derby.
ICE CHIPS: Both the Capitals and Grizzlies were represented in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics with former Grizzlies forward Eddie Yan and former Caps blueliner Simon Chen playing for host China.
