VICTORIA 7
COWICHAN VALLEY 2
No captain, no leading scorer, no problem for the Victoria Grizzlies on Saturday night at The Q Centre.
The Grizzlies were missing plenty of offence with injuries to leading point-getter Alex Newhook and captain Lucas Clark, but that didn鈥檛 stop them from disposing of a Cowichan Valley Capitals team more interested in collecting cheap shots than goals.
The Grizzlies got goals from seven players to down the last-place Caps 7-2 in front of 969 fans. While the game was about outscoring the opposition for the Grizzlies, they had to stay disciplined and turn the other cheek as the Capitals, eight points out of the sa国际传媒 Hockey League鈥檚 final playoff spot with six games remaining, kept coming at them with late hits, cross checks and slashes.
The worst was a blow to the head by Cowichan鈥檚 Ethan Scardina on Grizzlies defenceman Drayson Pears late in the first period. Scardina was given a five-minute major and game misconduct. Pears left the game and did not return. He was joined on the injured list in the second period by starting netminder Zack Rose, who was driven to the ground by Caps forward Hugh Larkin in an obvious goaltender interference call. Kurtis Chapman finished up in relief and shut down the Capitals the rest of the way as Victoria outshot Cowichan 47-21.
Grizzlies GM and head coach Craig Didmon was happy with the two points, but not happy with losing two more players. 鈥淚 thought our league had seen the last of that style of play so that鈥檚 a little disappointing,鈥 Didmon said of Cowichan鈥檚 obvious game plan. 鈥淏ut they鈥檝e struggled against us all seasons, so I guess they decided on that mentality.鈥
The referees handed out three game misconducts and four 10-minute misconducts to the Capitals. And the Grizzlies鈥 power play took advantage, finishing the night 3-for-10.
鈥淚 thought the officials did a good job of showing they were in control and, for the most part, made the right calls when they needed.鈥
The Grizzlies improved to 28-17-4-3 and remain atop the Island Division standings, one point ahead of the Powell River King and Nanaimo Clippers, who also won on Saturday.
Caps forward Cole Broadhurst was running every Grizzlies player he could catch up to, and dared Shawn O鈥橫alley to drop the gloves before the puck was even dropped for the opening faceoff. That seemed to spark the Grizzlies as they netted the game鈥檚 first two goals.
Ryan Nolan, back after missing five games with an upper body injury, scored shorthanded just 1:07 into the game. That was followed by Ethan Nother calmly finishing a tic-tac-toe play with linemates Jamie Rome and Cam Thompson. Thompson finished with a goal and two assists. 鈥淐am has been really hot lately so I thought he would do well with Jamie and Ethan and he had a good game so that was good to see,鈥 Didmon said.
Rome, Thompson, Marty Westhaver, T.J. Freidmann and Justin Michaelian, with his team-leading 24th of the season, had the other Grizzlies goals. Nick Wilson and Ty Pochipinski had the Caps goals in the first period.
The Grizzlies host the Wenatchee Wild at 2 p.m. at The Q Centre today.