The 17-10-0-1 Clippers, who hold down first place in the Island Division, have now won all four games against the Grizzlies, although this was the first in Victoria.
The Grizzlies now stand at 10-16-0-3 as they hit the midway mark of the 2015-16 season. They will face the visiting Alberni Valley Bulldogs — who are just one point back of Victoria with three games in hand — tonight at 7.
Victoria is also winless against the Bulldogs this season, dropping all three contests early in the current campaign.
Nanaimo’s No. 1 line of Rempal (who had two goals and an assist), Devin Brosseau and Matt Hoover collected six points on Friday and have a whopping 129 on the season.
“It’s the best line in the league and you can’t make mistakes on the ice when they’re out there,” said Grizzlies general manager and head coach Craig Didmon. “I think we took them for granted a couple of times. On simple plays we turned pucks over and, all of a sudden, we were in tough spots.
“I don’t think we respected that team at the level that we should have and we let one slip away,” he added of trailing 2-1 after two periods. “The good news is [today] we can redeem ourselves.
“That makes [today] even bigger and we get to see Nanaimo again on Tuesday, so we have another shot at them. We have to focus on Alberni Valley though. There’s no secret, we’re in a playoff battle now.”
Powell River defeated Cowichan Valley on Friday to move eight points up on Victoria.
Yani Kaldis also scored for Nanaimo, while Brayden Gelsinger had a goal and an assist for Victoria, with Cole Pickup collecting his 10th for the hosts.
Victoria played without Jared Virtanen, who was acquired on Thursday from the Calgary Mustangs of the AJHL. He was in the building but did not play due to a long travel day. Didmon also traded Colby Livingstone to the OCN Blizzard of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League for future considerations.
