Victoria Grizzlies 4-6 Nanaimo Clippers@ Bear Mtn Arena, Dec 29th

TURKEY LEGS AND A QUESTIONABLE NON-CALL PUT AN END TO OUR GRIZZLIES 5 GAME WINNING STREAK!

Score, Nanaimo 6, Grizzlies 4. Attendance 1,396.

Our Grizzlies returned from their well deserved Christmas break a little slow in the first period! To the Clippers credit they came determined to win the game, and they did just that! They had just acquired Derek Dunn (who in my opinion is a fantastic goalie) from the Cowichan Capitals. And Derek was definitely on his game tonight facing 36 shots to Victoria's 28. Bill Bestwick, the Grizzlies head coach said after the game “We came back (after the break) and we have a lot of work to do. A team came in here tonight and they did everything they needed to do against a team on a roll. Good for them, and bad for us!”
Nanaimo (which still remains in second place in the island division) scored first at 8.02 of the first period. This is nothing unusual as our Grizzlies usually spot the opposition one goal at the beginning of the game just to show them goodwill haha :P) However this time it backfired and by the end of the second period Nanaimo was ahead 4 to 2. During both the first and second periods Victoria defense were guilty of sloppy turnovers that usually led to a goal being scored! Sometimes in this game the Grizz would look really good for a couple of shifts, but then Nanaimo would come back to dominate again. However, in the third period our Grizz seemed to get their legs back and scored 2 good goals. However, In this period Nanaimo scored one very questionable goal that was counted after a non call on a penalty by the ref and the other goal at the end of the third was an empty netter when the Grizzlies pulled their goalie for the extra attacker.
Here is the scoring summary for this game.
PERIOD 1
Nanaimo Clippers at 8:02 (PP) - Colton Dahlen from Trevor Fitzgerald and Matthew Grant
PERIOD 2
Nanaimo Clippers at 1:02 - Trevor Fitzgerald from Reid Sturos
Victoria Grizzlies at 2:34 (PP) - Gerry Fitzgerald from Myles Fitzgerald and DJ Jones
Victoria Grizzlies at 8:28 - Garrett Skrbich from Dante Hahn
Nanaimo Clippers at 11:28 - Austin Dick from Kyle Kramer and Greg Fraser
Nanaimo Clippers at 14:25 - Taylor Grobowski from Michael McNicholas
PERIOD 3
Nanaimo Clippers at 3:06 - Mason Mitchell (unassisted)
Victoria Grizzlies at 15:29 - Myles Fitzgerald from Leo Fitzgerald
Victoria Grizzlies at 19:42 (PP) - Stefan Nicholishen from David Mazurek
Nanaimo Clippers at 19:56 (EN)- Trevor Fitzgerald from Josh Bryan