POWELL RIVER 3
VICTORIA 2
The Victoria Grizzlies made a valiant comeback against the hottest team in the league in Powell River on Saturday night, but in the end, couldn’t manage to cool off the Kings.
A hooking penalty to Nathan Looysen midway through the 3-on-3 second overtime period gave the Kings a power play and they made the Grizzlies pay. Cam Donaldson buried a one-timer past Matthew Galajda giving the Kings a 3-2 win, their sixth victory in a row.
After falling behind 2-0 midway through the first period — and being outshot 16-8 in the opening frame, the Grizzlies refused to go away, even when forward Keyvan Mokhtari was given a game misconduct late in the first for saying something to the official from the bench, the Grizzlies kept gaining momentum.
And at 3:41 of the second, Grizzlies rookie Cory Hatcher took a nice feed from Jake Stevens and scored his fourth goal in the last four games to get Victoria on the board. And then it was Grizzlies captain Cody Van Lierop getting his first of the season with seven minutes left in the third to even the score at 2-2 and earn the Grizzlies another valuable point.
Victoria’s record moves to 5-1-2-2 but their 14 points continues to lead the Island Division and BCHL.
Johan Steen and Kyle Betts had the Kings’ first-period goals 24 seconds apart.
The Grizzlies were 0-3 on the power play, while the Kings were 2-5.
The Kings, who improve to 6-4, fired 41 shots on Galajda, while Mitch Adamyk faced 31 Victoria shots.
The Grizzlies now return home for a pair of games next weekend. They’ll host the Cowichan Valley Capitals on Friday night, followed by a Sunday afternoon matchup against the Chilliwack Chiefs.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Grizzlies were again without injured veterans Brett Stirling and Nick Guiney. . . . In Nanaimo on Saturday night, the Clippers beat the Coquitlam Express 4-1 to improve to 5-4-0-0 on the season, while in Merritt, the Capitals got a late goal to beat the Centennials 4-3 and improve to 5-2-1-0.
bdrewry@timescolonist
