Last night we were watching what is possibly the hottest team in the BCHL right now. But I don't think any of us could have anticipated that the Grizzlies would literally blow the Clipper ship right out of the water with a 6 to 1 win! It makes me think of that radio ad that the Grizzlies are using this year where a player from the other team calls 911 to report a ferocious Grizzly. I wonder if, during the second intermission, how many of the Clippers phoned 911 to report a very large and ferocious Grizzly bear in the arena while leaving a trail of poop as they were heading for the visiting team's dressing room??
To give credit where it is due I am sure both teams realized just how important winning this game was. A win could either upset or cement the Grizzlies tenuous lead in the Island division points. The Clipper ship loaded it's cannons for bear and entered the Bear Den with all the firepower possible. But as I had mentioned earlier the Grizzlies had been off for a while and had time to sharpen up their claws and fangs.
Something else that I noticed in this game—The Grizzlies seem to have been working hard on bettering their power play! They scored 4 for 6 which is way better than their average had been! Could Ryan O'Byrne have been anything to do with this? I bet the boys will miss Ryan's tutoring now that has left our bench and returned to playing full time with the ECHL to keep his skill up (for when/if the NHL ever regain their senses!)
The first period was a hard fought affair, and it would be hard to say either team came out with a distinct advantage! At the end of the first the score was 1 to 1 and the shots on net were 8 to 12 Victoria. (Not that far apart). Both Nanaimo and Victoria had scored their goal on the powerplay. It was great and exciting hockey- end to end, back and forth and some great saves by both our netminder Mike Stilliadis and Nanaimo's Jason Argue.
The second period sent Nanaimo reeling and heading for cover! Our Grizzlies scored 4 unanswered goals giving us a 5 to 1 lead after the second period. The Grizzlies outplayed and outshot Nanaimo throughout the period and made Nanaimo's defense look bad when the Grizz could penetrate it almost at will. Two of the goals were scored on the powerplay when the Clips got into penalty trouble, both by Gerry Fitzgerald. This is where Gerry got his hat trick scoring 3 of the 5 goals in the first 2 periods! Fantastic performance Gerry! But Gerry was kind enough to allow a couple of his teammates to shine also! At 6.41 DJ Jones scord with assist from Blake Thompson, and at 16.47 Myles Powell scored from Mark McLellan and Chase Kaiser. The shots on goal at the end of the 2nd. period were now a whopping15 to 31 Grizz, a difference of over double!
We could see that the reeling Clippers were quite 'shook up' at the beginning of the third period and played a lot stronger. They held the Grizzlies to only one goal in that period, and it came on a power play only 5 minutes into the period when Mark McLellan scored with help from Chase Kaiser and Zach Urban. Huge congratulations to all 3 game stars FROM THE GRIZZLIES! Gerry Fitzgerald was the games First star (and no wonder with that big hat trick!) and the second star was another of that awesome threesome Gerry's brother Myles Fitzgerald. And the third star was not one of the Fitzies! It was none other than Chase Kaiser!
Now I am sure you all know by now that I love raggging on the poor referees! Well here is something different! Huge congratulations to referee Kirk Van Helvoirt! In my opinion (which does not count for much as I know about as much about refereeing as I do about preparing snails to make escargot) Kirk realized that these two HOTHEADED teams could easily be frustrated by nit-picking continuous penalties and delays in the flow of the game. Kirk seemed to allow the boys to play and only made calls that were truly deserved. And (again in my opinion) this seemed to be the key to this game being played so well disciplined, and even though it was still rough there no NO actual fights! Very different to when we were last at Nanaimo when it seemed that both teams were intent on injuring each other! This is the way I like to watch hockey—feisty but no brawls. Congratulations to the Clippers and their coach that despite the looming blowout the team kept it's cool. There will be lots of other games for them!
Game Thoughts Grizzlies:
One of the display of the season so far as the Grizzlies out worked a Clippers team who didnt have an answer for the black and gold once they crossed the Clippers blue line.
Despite missing Hartskamp, Meek, Coachman and Lawson the Grizzlies didn't skip beat.
Gerry Ftizgerald who made some ground up in the scoring dept on his brothers with a hat trick.
An impressive display for each player in a Grizzlies uniform tonight and an impressive display from the Kaiser, McLellan and Powell line who were relentless going forward tonight.
This 6-1 display against a very talented Clippers team has shown that the Grizzlies could well be joining our Harbour City cousins in April/May........however, thats a long way off.
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