First place in the Island Division is on the line this weekend for the Victoria Grizzlies, who venture to Powell River to face the Kings in a pair of pivotal sa国际传媒 Hockey League matchups at Hap Parker Arena.
In fact, three of the next four games will come against the Kings, who are tied in points with the Grizzlies at 31. Victoria does have two games in hand on their Island rival.
鈥淲e鈥檙e working hard to get ready for it,鈥� said Grizzlies defenceman Brett Stirling. 鈥淚 think everyone knows what鈥檚 at stake here this weekend and we鈥檙e hoping we can go in there and take it to them right off the bat.
鈥淭he first day is the real big test. It would be nice to get a win on a travel day. The ferry there is tough. We just want to be able to get mentally ready and hopefully walk in and take it to them in that small rink.鈥�
Which is never an easy task, but the Grizzlies head into the weekend matchup on a stretch of 142 minutes and 38 seconds of shutout hockey, coming off 4-0 and 3-0 victories against Alberni Valley and Vernon last weekend.
鈥淸Matthew] Galajda has been pretty amazing these last few games,鈥� Stirling said of the starting netminder, who claimed the back-to-back goose eggs. 鈥淗e鈥檚 been making some huge saves.
鈥淎s a defensive corps, we鈥檙e playing well and battling and we鈥檝e said to ourselves let鈥檚 just keep the puck out of our net and let the forwards start dealing with the offence a bit.
鈥淪ure, we can help out a bit with that and do what we can here and there, but if we don鈥檛 get scored on, we鈥檙e going to win,鈥� added Stirling. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 how we鈥檙e viewing things. The older guys are enforcing that and the younger guys are stepping up. We just want to play solid defence. That will get us wins and that鈥檚 our goal.鈥�
It鈥檚 paid off tremendously for the 13-3-2-3 Grizzlies. The Kings are 15-7-1-0.
鈥淥bviously, not letting a goal in is pretty successful,鈥� veteran forward Cole Pickup said of last weekend鈥檚 performance. 鈥淣ow we have three of four against [Powell River] so that鈥檚 three huge games.鈥�
