VICTORIA 8
ALBERNI VALLEY 3
There is no truth to the rumour that the goaltenders in Wednesday night’s matchup between the Victoria Grizzlies and Alberni Valley Bulldogs suffered burns from the frequency of the red light going on behind their nets.
But that’s only because the Plexiglas acted as a deflector.
In one of the wildest opening periods of the Grizzlies’ 2014-15 B.C. Hockey League season, the locals scored four times on 11 shots and the visiting Bulldogs tallied twice on just seven in the wide-open affair.
It ended in an 8-3 victory for Victoria, who benefited from a 10 -point night from the Dane Gibson, Matt Kennedy and Brett Gruber line.
Fourteen minutes into the game it looked like it could be the first team to 10 wins.
“The start was a little bit of a shootout, but luckily for us it started to slow down and we played a little better defensively, which helped us,” said Kennedy, who had a goal and two assists.
“We had some success [as a line] but we’re working hard as a team and things are starting to look up for us and I’m really excited about that.”
It didn’t start so well.
Grizzlies goaltender Sean Cleary made his first start since Jan. 10 in Powell River when he played just 20 minutes. The Massachusetts native missed eight games due to injury.
Mike Stiliadis, who started the last eight, was out of the Victoria lineup due to an educational administrative error (he hadn’t signed up for enough courses as a just-turned 21-year-old).
It became a frantic first period with Grizzlies centreman Thomas Gobeil injuring his shoulder on his first shift as he was run into the Alberni Valley gate, which opened on contact.
While he was in the dressing room, Alberni’s Marcus Russell opened the scoring at 2:21, but the Grizzlies got that one back when Gobeil returned and earned the second assist on captain Shawn McBride’s redirection of Jake Emilio’s shot on a power play at 4:54.
Just 1:12 later, Mitch Makin wrapped around a power-play goal of his own for the Bulldogs, but Gibson finished off a Kennedy feed on a 2-on-1 break to tie it at 2-2 at 7:22 — all that before your coffee could get cold.
A Gobeil slapper at 12:10 chased Bulldogs’ starting goaltender Nathan Warren from the nets and backup Billy Christopoulos was welcomed just 1:26 later by Kevin Massy’s power-play goal.
Kennedy and Gruber scored 23 seconds apart midway through the second before Taylor Derynck tallied for the Bulldogs on a power play as Cleary was screened. Jay Mackie made it 7-3 Victoria on a power play with 0.2 seconds left in the second.
Gruber then had the lone goal of the third.
Gobeil now has six goals in seven games since being acquired from Cowichan Valley. He also had a pair of assists Wednesday as the Bulldogs had crept to within a point of their Island Division rivals.
Victoria now has a rare weekend off and comes back to host Alberni Valley again on Toonie Tuesday when game-day tickets are just $2.
