It鈥檚 time to throw the clich茅 book, the unabridged edition, at the Victoria Grizzlies. Are their backs against the wall or is there no tomorrow? Both.
The Salmon Arm Silverbacks took a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven first-round sa国际传媒 Hockey League playoff series with a 3-2 victory Monday night at The Q Centre.
The Silverbacks, a stifling defensive team, won the first two games 2-1 and 4-0 in Salmon Arm.
The fourth game is tonight at The Q Centre. A fifth game, if required, will be Thursday in Salmon Arm.
鈥淲e鈥檙e focusing on Game 4 and have not even thought a day beyond that,鈥� said Grizzlies captain Marty Westhaver.
鈥淭he team has worked hard and is getting the effort but the bounces haven鈥檛 gone our way. We still believe it鈥檚 going to be a long series.鈥�
The crossover series is between the Interior Division third-seed Silverbacks (30-23-5 in the regular season) and Island Division fifth-place Grizzlies (24-33-1).
Game 3 opened in the worst way possible for Victoria as Luke Mylymok, selected by the Victoria Royals in the 2016 WHL bantam draft, opened the scoring for Salmon Arm followed by Logan Shaw before the game was five minutes old.
It was the third goal of the series for Mylymok, who chose the pending NCAA Div. 1 route at Minnesota-Duluth, over the major-junior WHL.
Defenceman Reid Lindsay got one back for the Grizzlies before Simon Tassy鈥檚 goal in the final minute of the first restored the Silverbacks鈥� two-game advantage.
Home-Island product Westhaver, the 20-year-old NCAA Div. 1 Alabama-Huntsville-bound veteran, is now down to potentially the final game of his four-year junior career with the Grizzlies. He brought the hosts back to within one with his first goal of the playoffs at 8:18 of the second period. There needs to be more of that from the small veteran group on what is largely a youthful Grizzlies team.
The goaltending battle is top-notch. Ethan Langenegger of Salmon Arm, committed to NCAA Div. 1 Lake Superior State, made 28 saves to be named the game鈥檚 first star. Victoria鈥檚 NCAA Penn State Nittany Lions-bound goaltender, 20-year-old Liam Souliere, made 22 saves.
鈥淲e knew this was going to be a battle of the goalies and both have been solid in this series,鈥� said Westhaver.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to take us crashing the net and creating chances. We don鈥檛 need pretty goals. We just need goals.鈥�
In series involving other Island Division teams, the Island top-seed Nanaimo Clippers lead the fourth-seed Alberni Bulldogs 2-0 heading into the third game tonight in Port Alberni, while the second-seed Cowichan Valley Capitals lead the third-seed Kings 2-0 heading into the third game tonight in Powell River.
