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The Victoria Grizzlies make one last appearance at home at 2 p.m. today at The Q Centre against the Prince George Spruce Kings before they enjoy an 11-day Christmas break from game action.
Tony Rehm is expected to be back in goal after taking a break in Friday鈥檚 4-4 double overtime tie in Port Alberni in which affiliated player Shawn Parkinson took to the nets. Rehm had made four straight starts prior.
Parkinson鈥檚 stats were upgraded to making 36 saves in the tie, including seven in the two overtime periods and 12 in the third, to keep the Grizzlies within striking distance, while Victoria peppered Brody Claeys with 12 over the two extra sessions.
鈥淚 thought Parkie was great. He got us that point,鈥� Grizzlies general manager and head coach Craig Didmon said of Parkinson. 鈥淲e were struggling a bit and he made some big stops. We scored on ourselves once with an unfortunate bounce off the boards, but other than that the kid made almost 40 saves.鈥�
Rehm will try to improve on his 5-1 record as he sees more action. No. 1 netminder Matthew Galajda was away at the World Junior A Hockey Challenge and then headed home to Ontario for the holiday.
Rehm won his last appearance 5-2 against Nanaimo after a 3-1 setback to Wenatchee in which he made a remarkable 40 saves to keep his team in it. He has allowed 12 goals against in seven appearances and his save percentage is solid at .933.
He will play behind a roster that is still missing captain Cody Van Lierop on defence and key forwards Tyler Welsh and Keyvan Mokhtari.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to not care about it. You鈥檝e got to keep doing what you鈥檙e doing,鈥� Rehm said of playing through the changes.
Didmon isn鈥檛 expecting any of his injured players back this afternoon, 鈥渙ther than we鈥檒l probably get Lach Hadley in to fill in that affiliate position,鈥� he said of selecting the Shawnigan Lake School 16-year-old for his third Junior game. 鈥淭he guys are battered and bruised, but they just have to put their heads down for three more periods.鈥�
They battled Friday night and need to do it again today.
鈥淚 like how we handled the adversity,鈥� Didmon said of bouncing back from a 4-1 deficit Friday. 鈥淭here were some tough calls early and I like how we kept our composure. These guys expect to win hockey games and even when it鈥檚 4-1, they say: 鈥極K, let鈥檚 get the next one and we鈥檙e back in it.鈥� That's what we did, we got two quick ones and we knew going into the third period that we were coming out with at least a point.鈥�
The Grizzlies are 22-6-3-4 in the standings and were eight points up on Powell River in the Island Division before Saturday play. The Kings had lost 4-3 in Surrey on Thursday and dropped a 6-1 result in West Kelowna on Friday prior to travelling south to Wenatchee for a late Saturday game.
Following today鈥檚 outing, the Grizzlies will get back to work on Dec. 30 in Duncan against the Cowichan Valley Capitals.
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