Victoria finished 1-for-3 with the man advantage, a positive for the league鈥檚 worst power-play unit, clicking at just 11.21 per cent coming into the key Island Division matchup. But the team has now tallied just once in each of the last two games, both road defeats.
Cole Pickup came up with the special-teams marker, down 2-0 at the time, but it wasn鈥檛 enough 鈥� as has been the case so far.
鈥淚t is definitely frustrating right now,鈥� veteran Grizzlies forward Brayden Gelsinger said of the power play prior to the outing. 鈥淏ut it will come. We鈥檙e doing the little things that are eventually going to allow us to put the puck in the net.
鈥淲e just have to keep working hard and know that the goals will come and be confident in ourselves. The puck just hasn鈥檛 gone in much. Sometimes that鈥檚 just the way it goes, but it will start coming,鈥� added Gelsinger, who had his five-game point streak snapped on Wednesday.
The good news was the Grizzlies didn鈥檛 allow a short-handed goal, having already surrendered nine this season, a league worst by four goals.
鈥淲e have to definitely work on cutting the short-handed goals down as well. Hard work will contribute to that,鈥� said Gelsinger, who had 13 points in his previous 10 games.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been working hard and everyone鈥檚 been going. We鈥檙e getting chances and I think it鈥檚 going to come,鈥� linemate Dante Hahn said of the power play. 鈥淲e just have to keep grinding and working hard and things will work out.鈥�
Sheldon Rempal, with two goals (one on a power play and one into an empty net), Troy MacTavis, Zach Court and Nolan Aibel scored for Nanaimo, which features the fourth-best power play in the BCHL. The Clippers improve to 14-10-0-1, while the Grizzlies fall to 9-14-0-3.
Victoria now starts a five-game homestand tonight against the Trail Smoke Eaters that continues Friday against Cowichan Valley. The Grizzlies will play nine of the next 12 at The Q Centre before the Christmas break.
The team just finished a three-games-in-three-days trip to Coquitlam, Merritt and Trail.
The Grizzlies lost 2-1 in Trail on Sunday thanks to a 29-save performance from Smokies goaltender Linden Marshall, a 17-year-old who hails from Victoria.
Marshall is 4-2 on the season and the six-foot-three goaltender was signed out of the Pacific Coast Hockey Academy Prep team in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League. The PCHA is based at Westhills Arena.
