The undefeated streak has hit double digits as the Victoria Grizzlies stretched their fine little run to 10 games by way of a 3-0 win over the visiting Alberni Valley Bulldogs on Friday night at The Q Centre.
With the victory, the Grizzlies moved into sole possession of first place in the sa国际传媒 Hockey League鈥檚 Island Division, with a record of 23-14-3-2 for 51 points. The Nanaimo Clippers (49 points) were off Friday and the Powell River Kings (48 points) tied the Salmon Arm Silverbacks 3-3 in double overtime.
The Kings do have two games in hand on both their rivals, however, and visit Nanaimo tonight before venturing into Victoria at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e doing the right things out there and they鈥檙e working hard,鈥� Grizzlies general manager and head coach Craig Didmon said.
鈥淲e feel fortunate to have had some success here, but it鈥檚 just a part of the season.
鈥淲e鈥檝e worked hard to get where we are, and now we have to keep climbing the ladder. Hopefully, we can continue to make the spread bigger within the division and get that home-ice advantage, which is important to us,鈥� Didmon said.
Ethan Nother opened the scoring just 4:47 into the first period. He gobbled up an errant puck and skated in alone to beat John Hawthorne in the Alberni net with a nifty deke to the backhand.
Victoria immediately had opportunities to pile it on, but a 5-on-3 man-advantage for 52 seconds wound up goal-less.
It wasn鈥檛 for lack of effort, as there were a pair of goalposts rung on the power plays. In fact, the Grizzlies clanged iron on four instances in the opening 20 minutes.
Matthew Doran made it 2-0 on a power play at 7:46 of the second period as he deftly deflected Carter Berger鈥檚 point shot.
The Grizzlies鈥� power play came into the evening leading the league at a 22.6 per cent rate, but just went 2-for-9 鈥� including two, two-man advantages. The second came during a five-minute major late in the game in which Cam Thompson scored with 3:31 to go.
鈥淚f you could point a finger at anything tonight, we were too passive on our power play. We鈥檝e had a lot of success there, but you can鈥檛 stop working,鈥� Didmon said.
鈥淵ou have to put teams away sooner.鈥�
Nother was solid again on the top unit with Alex Newhook and Jamie Rome.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been hot and it鈥檚 good to keep it going,鈥� Nother said of the undefeated run that includes a tie with nine wins. 鈥淲e went through some struggles throughout the year, and it鈥檚 good to be winning games consecutively like this now.鈥�
Zack Rose made 25 saves to earn the win and the shutout, his second of the season, on a relatively tame night. He robbed Keaton Mastrodonato and Michael Sacco in tight for his best saves. Luc Salem also hit the post late.
Meanwhile, Hawthorne faced 27 shots in the Bulldogs鈥� net.
It was a physical affair as the Bulldogs took some runs at Newhook, the 16-year-old sensation, who was injured briefly in the second period after being hit late in the corner.
He also dodged a check in which the opponent ended up on his own bench.
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