That monkey that was hanging on the backs of the Victoria Grizzlies the last couple of weeks is starting to look like a full-fledged gorilla.
The sa国际传媒 Hockey League club lost its fourth straight in an overtime session, this time 4-3 to the West Kelowna Warriors.
The Grizzlies are also winless in five sa国际传媒 Hockey League outings.
Ambrose Firkus scored on a breakaway at 3:28 of OT to provide the visitors with the victory.
Affiliated player Josh Adkins, of the Peninsula Panthers, scored at 6:44 of the third period and it looked like the hosts would skate off with the regulation time win.
But Daniel Gayle鈥檚 power-play goal at 17:42 forced OT before 1,348 fans at Bear Mountain Arena.
鈥淚t was an incredible effort for about 55 minutes, a game that we played exceptionally well in as a team,鈥� said general manager and head coach Bill Bestwick. 鈥淏ut once again, we did it to ourselves with a stupid penalty.
鈥淥ur penalty kill has been anything but good, so you would think our guys would have learned by now that our best penalty kill would be to not take them.鈥�
Turner Lawson took an extra minor penalty in the dying minutes that led to the goal.
Myles Powell had presented the Grizzlies a 2-1 lead at 16:54 of the second period, shortly after the team鈥檚 second power play of evening. West Kelowna replied at 18:18 on Adam Plant鈥檚 goal.
A short-handed tally by Keyler Bruce opened the scoring 7:23 into the first period for the Grizzlies, but
Marcus Basara tied it for West Kelowna at 14:05 of the stanza.
Victoria had the lead three times but couldn鈥檛 hang on for goaltender Mike Stiliadis who aced 34 shots.
Tyler Biggs handled the netminding duties for West Kelowna.
The Grizzlies now fall one point behind the Surrey Eagles, who took over first place overall with a resounding 8-1 win over Coquitlam.
The game began well for Victoria, but ended miserably.
The good news is they can try and snap it tonight in their final regular-season game at 7:15 at home against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs.
It鈥檚 fan appreciation night with plenty of prizes, including a trip for two to Las Vegas, on the line.
鈥淸Saturday] is important. I loved our team鈥檚 effort [Friday]but it didn鈥檛 translate into a victory,鈥� said Bestwick. 鈥淥ur stupidness turned into a loss.鈥�
The Grizzlies were minus six key players as Leo and Gerry Fitzgerald, D.J. Jones, Pearce Eviston, Stefan Nicholishen and captain Zach Urban were all out. Gerry Fitzgerald is gone for the season and Victoria is hoping Jones will be back for the playoffs.
The Grizzlies will open Round 1 at home on Friday against the Powell River Kings and play Game 2 the next night before the best-of-five moves up Island and across the ferry for Game 3 on March 18 and, if necessary, Game 4 on March 19.
If a Game 5 is required the two teams would have to play a third game in three nights back in Victoria on March 20.
The other Island Division matchup 鈥� featuring the Clippers and Bulldogs 鈥� will go exactly the same nights starting in Nanaimo for the first two, the next two in Port Alberni and back to the Harbour City, if required, for a fifth.
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