NANAIMO聽 2
VICTORIA聽 1
The goose egg was finally cracked Saturday night as the Nanaimo Clippers defeated the Victoria Grizzlies for the first time in eight tries, bringing the sa国际传媒 Hockey League regular season to a conclusion for both teams.
Ben Solin scored both goals as the Clippers stole a 2-1 victory over the Grizzlies on fan appreciation night at The Q Centre.
The same two teams will face each other in the opening best-of-seven playoff series which begins Friday, with Game 2 to follow on Saturday, both at The Q Centre.
The Grizzlies played with two forwards short as GM and head coach Craig Didmon decided to rest players with nagging injuries.
鈥淲e had a real short bench and it was a battle of attrition tonight. We didn鈥檛 want to show much of our game plan and I thought we saw some stuff on how they want to play it,鈥� Didmon said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all strategy now. You obviously want to finish on a high note, but these guys have had a good season with 37 wins.鈥�
Brett Stirling was awarded a penalty shot just 13 seconds into the game as the Grizzlies defenceman was tripped up on a breakaway. His deke attempt on Clippers goalie Evan DeBrouwer went wide.
Cole Pickup opened the scoring for Victoria just 5:12 into the game and it remained that way until Solin tied it on a Nanaimo power play late in the second period on a power play. He collected the winner early in the third.
Usual starting netminder Matthew Galajda did not even dress for the Grizzlies and backup Tony Rehm watched from the bench as affiliated player Shawn Parkinson made the start. Victoria also sat out Justin Michaelian, Marty Westhaver, T.J. Friedmann and Keyvan Mokhtari.
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