The Victoria Grizzlies should have plenty of momentum heading into tonight鈥檚 game against the visiting Powell River Kings at The Q Centre.
Having scored six straight goals Sunday afternoon for an 8-5 come-from-behind victory over the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, the Grizzlies hope the scoring onslaught at home continues, having tallied the half-dozen goals in the final 30 minutes of the weekend win.
鈥淵ou know what I like the most, was nobody panicked at 5-2 and we stuck to our guns and just kept working hard,鈥� Grizzlies GM and head coach Craig Didmon said of the Sunday victory. 鈥淲e pecked away at it and I like the way Lucas Clark got two goals in a short amount of time to tie it up.
鈥淎nd Jacson Alexander showed why he鈥檚 a special player with the 5-3 goal to get us going with the snapshot, top corner.鈥�
The 14-9-3-1 Grizzlies now welcome the Island Division-leading Kings (15-6-2-2), who have two games in hand on Victoria, at 7 p.m. at The Q Centre.
On Sunday, goaltender Zack Rose was forced into the game to start the second period when backup Shawn Parkinson was injured late in the first and couldn鈥檛 continue. Trailing 3-2 to start the second, Rose allowed two goals in the first 1:03 as the Bulldogs went up 5-2.
That鈥檚 when momentum switched with 16-year-old defenceman Alexander scoring at 9:01 before captain Clark added two goals 56 seconds apart late in the middle period to tie it at 5-5. T.J. Friedmann and Carter Berger (short-handed) added third-period markers on Alberni goalie John Hawthorne before Matthew Doran iced it with a late empty-net goal.
Hawthorne faced 42 shots on goal, while Rose stopped 20 of 22 shots he faced. Parkinson surrendered three goals on 10 shots before leaving the game.
Marty Westhaver and Alex Newhook had the other Victoria goals, while Sami Pharaon, Jackson Doucet, James Orban, Paul Selleck and Keaton Mastrodonato replied for the Bulldogs, who were 2-for-6 on the power play. Victoria was 2-for-3 on its man-advantage situations.
Didmon liked the way his team responded to the challenge, down 5-2 early in the second after Rose allowed two goals on two shots.
鈥淲e were killing a penalty to start the second and neither goal was his fault, but from there he got real comfortable and really shut the door,鈥� Didmon said of Rose.
鈥淗onestly, at that point I was thinking here鈥檚 a good test. We came to play, we knew that. It was a matter of how are we going to stay together at the seams and they had no problem with it,鈥� Didmon said of the comeback.
AROUND THE BCHL: Ownership of the struggling Coquitlam Express has seen enough. On Monday, the Express, last in the BCHL at 3-21-1-1, fired head coach and GM Barry Wolff and named Jason Fortier new bench boss and assistant GM. Fortier spent the past two seasons as associate coach with the Ontario Hockey League鈥檚 Kitchener Rangers.
