NANAIMO 6 - VICTORIA 4聽
Oh, it was Party Crasher and Noisemaker night, all right, but it was the visiting Nanaimo Clippers who spoiled the fun with a 6-4 victory over the Victoria Grizzlies on Saturday night at Bear Mountain Arena.
The New Year鈥檚 promotion fizzled out as the Clippers lowered the boom - much like the ball drops in Times Square in New York - on the Grizzlies, who had a healthy five-game winning streak snapped.
Victoria was looking to cap off a near perfect December, having won six of seven sa国际传媒 Hockey League outings over the span of the month, that is prior to this defeat. The only other previous loss was a 5-1 shellacking at home to Langley on Dec. 2.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 even feel like the same month,鈥� Grizzlies general manager and head coach Bill Bestwick said of the interrupted schedule due to the holidays. 鈥淪ometimes when you鈥檙e sitting at the blackjack table, you鈥檇 like to leave when you want to leave, but we had to leave because of the break.
鈥淲e came back and we have a lot of work to do, obviously. A team came in here tonight and they did everything they needed to do against a team on a roll. Good for them, bad for us.鈥�
Nanaimo, which improves to 17-13-0-2, struck first with a power-play goal from Colten Dahlen at 8:02 of the opening period as his one-timer beat Grizzlies goaltender Mike Stiliadis.
Victoria鈥檚 defence was guilty of some sloppy turnovers throughout the first as the hosts were outshot 12-9 by Nanaimo. Turner Lawson had the best chance of the opening 20 minutes for the Grizzlies, but he rapped a shot off the outside of post in the final 20 seconds.
It took just 1:02 into the second period for the Clippers to up the lead to 2-0 as Trevor Fitzgerald finished off a 2-on-1, but that鈥檚 when Victoria, now 22-9-0-2, awoke from its slumber.
Gerry Fitzgerald cut it to 2-1 at 2:34 on an assist to brother Myles Fitzgerald, who had five goals and four assists in his previous four games. Garrett Skirbich then buried a backhand, top shelf at 8:28 to tie it at 2-2.
鈥淚 thought for about five or six minutes, we were good. We had back-to-back shifts that were good, but then we had some poor play,鈥� Bestwick said of battling back, only to let it slide away. 鈥淲e turned pucks over and they took advantage of it.鈥�
The tide turned exactly three minutes later as Austin Dick regained the lead for the Clippers on a 4-on-4 situation and Taylor Grobowski restored the two-goal advantage as he banged one in at side of Stiliadis's net at 14:25 of the second.
Mason Mitchell made it 5-2 Nanaimo before Myles Fitzgerald and Stefan Nicholishen added late goals for the Grizzlies, but Trevor Fitzgerald capped it into an empty net.
Victoria, which remains in first place in the Island Division, will travel to face the Cowichan Valley Capitals on Wednesday night before returning home for games on Friday versus Nanaimo and Sunday against Powell River to start off 2013.
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