Saturday night against the Kings was the Taylor Pears show for the Victoria Grizzlies as the 20 year old goaltender made 52 saves in a 2-1 loss to the Coastal Conference leading Powell River Kings. The Grizzlies took an early 1-0 lead on a strange goal by Coltyn Hansen who took a high floating shot from the blueline that beat a screened Kings goalie Jonas Imoo who clearly didn’t see the puck as he didn’t react until it was already by him. Chase Kaiser and Cam Lawson drew assists on the goal as that line continued its red-hot weekend. The Kings controlled the play in the first two periods and showed why they’re in first place but Taylor Pears was locked in and the only King player able to beat him was former Grizz Evan Richardson who made a nice move to get by a Grizz defender and made a deke on Pears before roofing a backhand high under the crossbar. The second period ended in a 1-1 tie with the Kings outshooting the Grizzlies 41-15, the Grizzlies were again down to 4 defencemen after captain Kevin Smith suffered a shoulder injury in the first and left the game, with Jaden Schmeisser out after getting hurt Friday night it was up to Nolan De Jong, Braxton Bilous, Stefan Gonzales and Cole Gelley to deal with the big Kings forwards. The Kings scored the eventual game winner 5 minutes into the third as Richardson set up Cohen Adair, the Grizzlies would threaten in the last half of the third period especially Myles Powell who was the most dangerous Grizz attacker on the evening and had a few good chances to tie the game but was thwarted by Imoo.
Grizzlies Game Thoughts:
Another spirited effort by the undermanned Grizzlies and a terrific performance by well deserved first star Taylor Pears. Myles Powell played a good game not afraid to take the puck hard to the Kings net against a big Kings defence. Mike Sandor admirably filled in for a few shifts on the back end to give the remaining four defencemen a breather after Kevin Smith’s injury.
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