They say Rome wasn鈥檛 built in a day, but Jamie Rome certainly had one on Sunday, scoring twice and adding an assist to pace the Victoria Grizzlies to a bounce-back 5-2 victory over the Nanaimo Clippers at The Q Centre.
It followed a frustrating 3-1 loss to the Wenatchee Wild on Saturday night in which two players (Nick Guiney and Lucas Clark) and head coach Craig Didmon were ejected from the game.
All three were back in their usual spots on Sunday and Guiney scored the game-winner at 18:34 of the second period as the Grizzlies bounced back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to the Clippers.
Cam Thompson and T.J. Friedmann (the latter into an empty net) also scored third-period goals for the Grizzlies.
Tristan Crozier opened the scoring for the Clippers midway through the first period and Sean Buchanan gave the visitors their second one-goal lead in the opening minute of the second on a power play. But Rome knotted up the game twice, with his first at 13:55 of the first, which sent a shower of stuffed animals down on teddy bear toss day. His second came short-handed at 5:05 of the second.
Tony Rehm, who suffered his first loss of the season in a strong performance the night before against Wenatchee, made 28 saves for the Grizzlies to improve his record to 5-1. The team is now 22-6-3-3 and in third place overall in the sa国际传媒 Hockey League.
Goaltender Evan DeBrouwer faced 25 shots for Nanaimo, which slips to 13-16-5-1.
Cole Pickup 鈥� who was playing in his 200th career game with the Grizzlies, just 24 behind all-time leader Sean Robertson 鈥� picked up a pair of assists. The 20-year-old, who is heading to University of Nebraska-Omaha next season, also began the night 23 points behind Victoria鈥檚 all-time points leader Myles Fitzgerald. Pickup now has 11 points in his last seven games.
The Grizzlies will now head to Alberni Valley to face the Bulldogs on Friday night before playing host to Prince George on Sunday at 2 p.m. at The Q Centre before going on their Christmas break. They return Dec. 30 in Duncan against the Cowichan Valley Capitals.
LOOSE PUCKS: The top 20 rankings for Canadian Junior A Hockey were released Monday and the Grizzlies moved into an 鈥渉onourable mention.鈥� The league-leading Penticton Vees were fourth-ranked, while the Wild held down the No. 8 spot.
