While the Victoria Grizzlies seem to have found some stability, a degree of turmoil surrounds the other two Island Division teams that have also clinched B.C. Hockey League playoff berths.
The Powell River Kings (23-15-7) have lost three straight games and on Monday shocked the BCHL by firing head coach and GM Kent Lewis, a near-legendary fixture in the community, who had guided the Kings to seven Coastal Conference championships. Assistant coach Brock Sawyer has been promoted to interim head coach for tonight’s Kings game in Wenatchee against the Wild.
Things in the Harbour City are also unsettled as the Clippers (23-20-6) had lost seven straight games before easing the free fall with a 3-3 draw last weekend at the Q Centre against the Grizzlies, followed by a 4-3 overtime victory in Powell River.
Mid-season replacement head coach Darren Naylor, who played in the WHL for the Victoria Cougars in the late 1980s, will try to keep his Clippers on the right track when they host the Grizzlies tonight at Frank Crane Arena.
It’s not that the Clippers are a bad team. Far from it. It is an intriguing lot that features a trio of former WHLers in former Victoria Royals defenceman Jordan Wharrie, goaltender Taz Burman and forward Cal Babych, who scored the winner in the WHL- and CHL-record fifth overtime period last spring in which Everett eliminated the Royals.
Babych continued his late-game heroics against Victoria teams as his second goal of the game, with just 6.5 seconds remaining in regulation time, sent the 3-3 weekend tilt against the Grizzlies into overtime at the Q Centre. Wharrie, meanwhile, scored in overtime Saturday in Powell River to beat the Kings.
Toss in the talented Clippers blueliner Maxwell Crozier, who is headed to Providence of the NCAA, and last week was ranked by Central Scouting as the 115th North American skater for the 2018 NHL draft.
Also, Clippers forward Jake Harris last week landed his NCAA ride to Brown University. All that potential in Nanaimo has Grizzlies head coach and GM Craig Didmon wary of the Clippers heading down the stretch. He realizes that as well as his Victoria team has been playing of late, the Island Division crown is far from being secured.
“Tonight is a division game and all division games are important,” Didmon said. “It’s also the last time we will play Nanaimo this season, unless we meet in the playoffs, so that brings another element to it.”
The Grizzlies lead the season series against Nanaimo 4-1-2.
Didmon said there was no secret to Victoria’s recent 12-game undefeated-in-regulation streak. That was tempered by two straight subsequent losses, and the tie against Nanaimo, before the Grizzlies recorded a 6-3 statement-game victory Sunday at the Q Centre against the defending BCHL champion and league-leading Penticton Vees.
“We will continue doing what we do, which is speed, transition and attack,” Didmon said.
This is a Grizzlies team clearly built around its offence. That production is led by rookie sensation Alex Newhook, who is second in league scoring with 61 points despite having played five fewer games than leader Jasper Weatherby (64 points) of Wenatchee. Newhook, touted for potentially the first round of the 2019 NHL draft, leads the league with a 1.45 points-per-game average.
