VICTORIA 3 PENTICTON 2
The Victoria Grizzlies are proving they are more than capable of playing with the big dogs of the sa国际传媒 Hockey League.
The visiting Grizzlies defeated the defending national Royal Bank Cup-champion Penticton Vees 3-2 in double overtime on Saturday, practically duplicating a victory 15 days earlier in Victoria.
Myles Fitzgerald attempted a wrap-around on Vees netminder Chad Katu-nar - like he did for the 3-2 winner back on Oct. 12 - only this time, brother Leo Fitzgerald jumped on the rebound for this triumph at 2: 02 of the second extra session.
Teams skate 3-on-3 in the second overtime session after going 4-on-4 in the first extra five-minute period.
"Yeah, we took a bite out of the big dogs twice now. That feels pretty good," said Grizzlies general manager and head coach Bill Bestwick. "We just never quit and like that first meeting, it was a great hockey game.
"We gave up that goal 21 seconds in on a bit of a nervous mix up and the second goal was an awful turnover, but we never gave up."
Victoria improves to 11-5-0-1, recovering from a tough 4-2 loss the night previous in Trail, despite out-shooting their opponents 41-16.
The Grizzlies - now 4-1 in overtime games - wrap up their three-game road trip in Merritt this afternoon at 2 and will be without goaltender Mike Stil-iadis (the winner on Saturday), Nolan DeJong and Dante Hahn. All three will depart for the sa国际传媒 West selection camp in Calgary in preparation for the World Junior A Challenge.
As will Penticton's Wade Murphy, who scored the opening goal on Saturday, and goaltender Katunar, who are both Victoria natives. Murphy tallied just 21 seconds in before Mitch Meek tied it up with his first ever BCHL goal eight minutes later.
Jordan McCallum restored the Vees' lead at 6: 39 of the second before Brett Hartskamp tied it back up for Victoria 36 seconds into the third. It was Hartskamp's second goal in two nights.
The Vees are 13-2-0-2 this season with both overtime losses to Victoria. It was Penticton's first defeat on home ice at the South Okanagan Events Centre. [email protected] Twitter/tc_vicsports
