POWELL RIVER聽 12
VICTORIA聽 5
If Craig Didmon wanted to know what life was like without a proven No. 1 goalie, the Victoria Grizzlies general manager and head coach got a glimpse of it Saturday night, and it wasn鈥檛 pretty.
With Kurtis Chapman injured in practice this week and unable to play Saturday and Zack Rose not due back until December after off-season shoulder surgery, Grizzlies backup Keenan Rancier made just his third sa国际传媒 Hockey League start and his first at the Q聽Centre. And it was a short one. Rancier gave up six goals on 13聽shots in the first period as the visiting Powell River Kings pounded the Grizzlies 12-5.
Rancier gave way to emergency call-up Charles LePage to start the second, but LePage, who plays for the Kerry Park Islanders of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League, didn鈥檛 fare any better, letting in six goals on 20 shots as the Kings (8-6) snapped a two-game losing skid.
鈥淭here鈥檚 three parts [offence, defence, goaltending] to a hockey game and, unfortunately tonight, we only got one of them,鈥� said Didmon, whose club outshot Powell River 37-33.
Grizzlies captain Alex Newhook opened the scoring four minutes into the game, but then the Kings scored six goals in the final 15 minutes of the period. Rowan Miller, Mitch Williams and Matt Fawcett all had two goals for Powell River, who took a 12-2 lead into the third. Newhook added his second of the night on a second-period power play. Riley Hughes, Carter Berger and Henri Schreifels added third-period goals for Victoria.
The Grizzlies (10-6) picked the wrong night to have a stinker, with scouts from four NHL teams in attendance, including Thomas Gradin of the Vancouver Canucks. They liked what they saw on the Newhook goal that opened the scoring. The Grizzlies captain, projected to go in the first round of the 2019 NHL draft, undressed a Kings defenceman at the blue line, then fired a high wrister over the shoulder of Powell River goaltender Mitch Adamyk.
It was the lone highlight for Victoria, but they have little time to dwell on it as they host the Surrey Eagles today in a 2 p.m. contest, also at the Q Centre.
