There is little doubt that injuries have had a dramatic affect on the Victoria Grizzlies over the last several weeks.
Third-leading scorer and No. 1 centre Gerry Fitzgerald has not played since Jan. 20 and is likely gone for the rest of the season as he faces surgery on a lower-body injury.
No. 1 defenceman D.J. Jones is also back home in Minnesota due to an illness, but could be available for the first round of the sa国际传媒 Hockey League post-season.
The loss of Brett Hartskamp (lower body), Pearce Eviston (upper body) and Jaden Schmeisser (lower body) has also distressed the club of late.
Hartskamp was back in the lineup in Saturday鈥檚 2-1 overtime loss against the Nanaimo Clippers at Bear Mountain Arena, a second straight extra-session setback to their rival. It鈥檚 also a four-game winless streak for Victoria.
Reid Sturos notched the game-winner at 4:22 of OT. Brenden Forbes had opened the scoring for Nanaimo at 11:42 of the second period, but Myles Fitzgerald replied for the Grizzlies just under five minutes later.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e struggling. I think we鈥檙e getting a bit of reality. All year we had a lot of one-goal games and, in the last few, we鈥檝e been on the wrong side of,鈥� said associate coach and assistant general manager Craig Didmon.
Still in the fight for first-place overall in the league, Victoria has been forced to handle its injuries delicately, having sewn up first place in the Island Division for quite some time.
鈥淒.J. logs the most minutes on our defensive corps and Gerry centres our top line. Those are two key guys and we鈥檝e had to adjust to life without them, at this point,鈥� said Didmon.
鈥淥ur specialty teams are suffering a bit because, again, those are two key guys who log a lot of minutes on our special teams. But we鈥檙e going to work on those and if that鈥檚 our only issue right now, then we鈥檙e fine.鈥�
Not to make excuses, but with Gerry Fitzgerald out of the lineup, the Grizzlies have won five games in 13 outings. They are also winless in four without Jones.
鈥淒.J. Jones is one of the best defencemen in the league. He plays valuable minutes,鈥� added Grizzlies general manager and head coach Bill Bestwick. 鈥淥ur defensive corps is a good one, but not as solid without him, of course.鈥�
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