Over to you Powell River.
The Victoria Grizzlies did their part Thursday night in the battle for top spot in the sa国际传媒 Hockey League鈥檚 Island Division. The Grizzlies disposed of the Alberni Valley Bulldogs by a 4-2 score to move two points up on the Kings as the race comes down to the final weekend of the regular season. While the Grizzlies (31-18-4-4) sit at 70 points and the Kings at 68, Powell River has three games remaining. The Grizzlies have only Sunday afternoon鈥檚 contest against the Surrey Eagles left.
If the two teams are tied in points at the end of the regular season, Victoria would finish first by virtue of more wins in the head-to-head series. The Kings finish with three road games 鈥� tonight at Cowichan, and then two games in Port Alberni against the Bulldogs.
The Island Division champ will open the playoffs at home next weekend against the Bulldogs, while the second-place team would play the Nanaimo Clippers, who also have 68 points but have just one game remaining, tonight against Surrey.
The Grizzlies had to find a way to win minus some big guns. More than 200 points were missing from the Victoria roster through injuries or other issues, including leading scorers Jamie Rome and Alex Newhook and captain Lucas Clark.
But what was left of the Grizzlies鈥� roster struck early and then fended off a scrappy Bulldogs team that has been locked in fourth spot for months. T.J. Friedmann buried his 22nd of the season before the game was five minutes old and then Lach Hadley struck midway through the opening period.
鈥淲ith the amount of guys we had out, the guys knew we had to be on our game, be smart and play with good habits. And that鈥檚 what they did and they were rewarded for it,鈥� said Grizzlies GM/head coach Craig Didmon, whose clubs was also without Justin Michaelian.
Kurtis Chapman made 35 saves in the Grizzlies鈥� net.
