Article by Tony Burrows(nice job Tony):
After 2 hard road games against the Smokeeaters and the league leading Penticton Vees Our plucky Grizzlies limped into Merritt for the third game in the roadtrip. This game was against the second place team in the interior conference, with a 10 win and 4 loss to the start of the season,who always play tough, choking hockey in their own small Nicola Valley Arena.As you already know we were down three players, goalie Mike Stiliadis, and Nolan De Jong and Dante Hahn who had left after the Penticton game to go to the selection camp for Team West in Calgary. Also Myles Fitzgerald who had received a hard hit in Penticton and was not feeling 100% so Bill Bestwick game him the night off to recuperate!
Well, our Grizzlies who had just beaten the #1 team in the BCHL were definitely not planning to be intimidated by a little second place team! They came out with a Roar and dominated the first period. At 3.04 of the first Myles Powell scored his first goal from Zach Urban. Then at 10.12 Myles Powell picked up an assist when Mark McLellan beat Merritt's netminder Hill. At 17.42 DJ Jones from Mitch Meek and Mark McLellan again beat Hill. And at 18.46 of the first Jaden Schmeisser with Justin Polischuk's help beat Hill again. (Notice here again that the other teams are not allowing the Fitzgeralds any room to play! But again, this is giving some of the other lines a chance to really shine! Goes to show you what great depth the Grizzlies really have!
After Merritt's goalie Phoenix Hill's rough start he was replaced by their backup goalie Jack Burgaart who did an admirable job in goal for the rest of the game.
Just 43 seconds into the second period Turner Lawson scored our fifth goal from Dave Mazurek. But, hold on – things can change really quick in this little arena. And things did start changing!
57 seconds into the second Brendan Lamont from the Cents scored putting Merritt on the map. Then Myles Powell scored at 8.33 from Chase Kaiser and Mark McLellan. This was Myles's second goal of the game.
At 10.10 of the second a newly rejuvenated Merritt team scored again when Regan Soquila beat our netminder Brady Rouleau. And at 15.01 Merritt, now buzzing against an obviously tired Victoria team,
scored against Brady Roleau when Richard Sabourin scored.
I'm not sure if Justin Coachman decided that the worn out Grizzlies needed something to pump up their adrenaline a little, or whether he had just had enough of Sean Maktaak of Merritt, but Justin laid a severe whipping on him coming at him with both lefts and rights. Absolutely no contest! And the winner is Justin!!
After the intermission a really tired Grizz team hit the ice and at 2.57 of the third Sebastien Pare beat Brady Roleau for the Cent's 4th goal. This was starting to look way too much like what Scotty had said earlier—Grizz having a 6 to 4 lead could change in a second!
Luckily at 7.51 the MAN OF THE HOUR Myles Powell scored what was to be winning goal of the game and gave him his first Hat Trick. Congratulations Myles- that's awesome! That goal was scored with assists from Mark McLellan and DJ Jones.
It goes without saying that Merritt tried everything from that point on but our Big Bad Beat Up Grizzlies defended their turf and won the game 7 to 4.
On a serious note, during the game our 16 year old Rookie player Mitch Meek (who had scored a big one the night before in Penticton) somehow lost his helmet in a fall when he apparently stepped on the puck in front of our goal and slammed onto the ice on his back and the back of his head. The entire crowd in the Nicola Valley arena were totally silent, and Scotty Didmon quietly told us that it had been a very ugly fall. Mitch lay on the ice not moving and they brought in the ambulance crew and took him on a stretcher to the hospital. We were all very worried about him, but today's report is nothing but good! Mitch has a huge bump on his head but is OK and on his way back to Victoria. Luckily they make REAL tough kids nowadays!
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