The Victoria Grizzlies welcomed back a pair of key components to the lineup on Friday night, and both had a hand in their 3-1 road victory over the Cowichan Valley Capitals at the Island Savings Centre in Duncan.
Tyler Welsh opened the scoring at 16:37 of the first period, recording the goal in his first game back after missing a handful of outings due to injury. Cole Pickup extended his point scoring streak to seven games with an assist on the play.
Goaltender Matthew Galajda also made his return after representing sa国际传媒 West at the World Junior A Hockey Challenge in Alberta prior to the Christmas break.
Galajda made 32 saves on Friday, the first of five straight road games for the Grizzlies, who head to Nanaimo on Wednesday before a weekend excursion to Langley, Wenatchee and Surrey.
鈥淗e looks like he鈥檚 happy to be back. He鈥檚 got some good rest with a couple of more days than the other guys, so we鈥檙e going to expect him to carry the load again,鈥� Grizzlies head coach and general manager Craig Didmon said of Galajda and the next stretch of games.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a big five games with these two Island games against Cowichan and Nanaimo, and then that road trip will be tough.鈥�
Galajda entered the game with a 2.12 goals-against average and .927 save percentage with three shutouts. He was named the game鈥檚 first star while Welsh was the third star.
鈥淚t definitely helps having him back,鈥� Grizzlies forward Jamie Rome said of Galajda. 鈥淗e was out there with sa国际传媒 West, but having him back is a big plus for our team.鈥�
The Grizzlies recorded their 24th victory of the season, matching last year鈥檚 total 鈥� and it鈥檚 not 2017 yet.
Drayson Pears made it 2-0 for the Grizzlies 5:57 into the second period before Max Newton finally beat Galajda 4:34 into the third period. Cam Thompson added an empty-net goal for Victoria.
