Victoria Grizzlies 2 - 1 Surrey Eagles@ Bear Mountain Arena, Dec 8, 2012

CHARGING GRIZZLIES STOMP ON EAGLES AND WIN 2 TO 1.
This weekend was a four pointer for our charging Grizzlies! We took on the very hot #2 team in the mainland division that was riding a 4 game winning streak and managed to get a sweet win even though our boys were playing back to back games. After the big win in Powell River the night before our team had to be on the 8am. ferry back to Comox. So it was probably about 12.30 pm when they got back to the arena here. But they looked to be in great shape in this game against Surrey! And what do you know—the boys did not spot Surrey the usual one goal at the beginning of this one. (If they had, it would have gone to overtime!!) The Grizz scored early in the first when at 3.22 Gerry Fitzgerald beat Surrey net-minder Glen Ferguson with help from his brother Leo and rookie Dante Hahn. The play was exciting, and there were lots of chances for either team to score. The two goalies were the true stars of the game, making lots of great saves. The first period ended with the Grizz ahead by one goal.
It wasn't until 15 minutes into the second period that the Eagles scored when Brady Shaw finally managed to beat our Mike Stiliadis with a top corner zinger. With the game now tied all 1249 fans present were on the edge of their seats and many where loudly cheering their Grizzlies on! But no matter how hard we tried we could not answer that goal until at 8.31 of the third period Gerry Fitzgerald scored what was to be the game winning goal with assist from Myles and Leo Fitzgerald. The awesome threesome strikes again!!
The three stars of the game were:
No. 1--- Gerry Fitzgerald
No. 2 –(from Surrey) Brady Shaw
No. 3---Leo Fitzgerald.
And our grizzlies out shot the Eagles 37 to 28!
This now leaves our Grizzlies tied with Chilliwack for second overall in the BCHL at 40 points each, with only Penticton ahead at 43 points! And Victoria has one game in hand over Penticton!! Wow!
We lead the Island division with 4 points over the Alberni Bulldogs.
The Grizzlies are now 19—8--0--2 so far this season!
Congratulations Grizzlies—you guys are awesome!

Preview - Victoria Grizzlies v Surrey Eagles @ Bear Mountain Arena, 7;15pm, Dec 8th

 

 

Matt Erhart brings his surging Surrey Eagles squad in Bear Mountain on Saturday night, for their visit of the season to Victoria.

The Eagles have won 4 games in a row and are hot on the heels of the Mainland Division leading Chilliwack Chiefs. With recent addition Brady Shaw (acquired in a trade for Eagles legend Trevor Morley) who has scored his fair share of goals against the Grizzlies in the last two seasons, along with Victoria Royals protected player Demico Hannoun, forwards Mike Stenerson and Trevor Cameron, this will be another battle which the Grizzlies will need to bring their A game for.

After a great result in what can only be describe as the Grizzlies graveyard in Powell River in recent seasons last night, the black and gold will look to keep their good run going at home. Although injuries have made things a little difficult for Bill and Craig, the team is finding ways to win and gelling with new line mates when the situation call for it. That is certainly the mark of a team that can and should have a very successful season. With Brett Hartskamp and Justin Coachman out of the line up, as well as Brady Rouleau not making the trip up to Powell River last night, I’m sure we’ll see a couple of AP’s in the line up to back up the boys.

Impressive 16 yr old goaltender Alec Dillon, was called up from the Westshore Wolves to back up to Stiliadis on Friday night.
 

With the season almost at the half way mark, Bill Bestwick’s team can be pleased with their current place in the standing, but, if this season is to continue as the success story we know it can be, beating teams the quality of Surrey will go a long way to show how far we can go!!!

 

Mitch Meek commits to Clarkson University for 2014/15

 

Congratulations to rookie defenseman Mitch Meek, as his stellar start to his Junior A career has seen him nail down a scholarship to the NCAA division 1, Clarkson University Golden Knights.

The sixteen year old, who has displayed a confidence, smart defensive displays and a potent ability to jump in the play, has been a treat to watch so far this season.

Much like Nolan De Jong,  Mitch has shown a hockey sense beyond his years and hasn’t missed a beat since moving up to Junior A from Major Midget.

After coming off a nasty injury recently, Mitch’s energy and enthusiasm has certainly be missed from the line up. It’s hard to believe this kid is a rookie.

As Mitch won’t be going to Potsdam, NY until the 2014/15 season, Grizzlies fans will be able to watch Meek develop his talents further in the next two years.

 Congratulations Mitch.

 

 

Victoria Grizzlies 1 - 5 Langley Rivermen @ Bear Mountain Arena, Dec 2, 2012

Langley wins 5 to 1 against our Grizzlies!
Third game in one weekend. It's probably the reason why our Grizzlies did not fare well against Langley. The team was suffering problems with having so many players injured or out. Out injured were Mitch Meek, Blake Thompson, Leo Fitzgerald, Brett Hartskamp,Garrett Skrbich and Turner Lawson!! And we are also missing Justin Coachman who has had to return home ill. A HUGE THANK YOU TO OUR JUNIOR B CALLUPS. BRADY COULTER, BRANDON EGLI, SHAWN MCBRIDE AND SAM RICE, ALL OF YOU SEEM QUITE AT HOME AT THE JR. A. LEVEL!!!
However, I definitely did not see the zip and will to win that our Grizzlies showed in Cowichan the night before. It seemed like Langley outplayed the Grizzlies pretty much throughout the game, scoring at 4.32 into the first period on a power-play. This pretty well set the scene for the rest of the game. Our boys looked tired. Coach Bestwick even tried something unusual. After the second period he switched our goaltenders and put Brady Roleau in instead of Mike Stilliadis who started. However just when things were starting to look a little like de-ja-vue for our Christmas teddy toss, only 17 seconds into the third period Myles Powell scored a great short handed and unassisted goal precipitating a brightly colored rain of wrapped teddy bears onto the ice. HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE THAT BROUGHT STUFFED TOYS TO THE GAME. There are a lot of needy little kids that will have a little better Christmas because of your generosity!
AND A BIG THANKS TO OUR ENTIRE TEAM!! DESPITE THE STING OF A LOSS THEY TOOK A MOMENT TO COME TO CENTRE ICE AFTER THE GAME ENDED AND RAISE THEIR STICKS TO THE CROWD IN A SALUTE OF THANKS! VERY CLASSY YOU GUYS—YOUR FANS NOTICED !!!!!!
Note to our boys in sick bay! Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Your fans miss seeing you on the ice!!

Brett Hartskamp commits to NCAA Div 3, Marian University

Please note correction made for this article: It's the Marian University in Wisconsin. Sorry Brett and thanks to Sheri for the email.

Congratulations to Grizzlies forward Brett Hartskamp, who has secured a scholarship to Marian University in Wisconsin for next season. Former Grizzlies who have attended the Marian Hockey program are Tommy Fitzpatrick and Robbie Bailey.

Brett, who's now in his third season in the league has certainly earned his NCAA opportunity and entering his last season in Junior, has a real chance to do something special with this Victoria team.

 

Congratulations Brett.

 

 

 

Cowichan Valley Capitals 2 - 4 Victoria Grizzlies @ Island Savings Centre, Dec 1, 2012

Our Grizzlies Roared over the Malahat on a wet and windy night and went into the enemy's lair and conquered their entire army and thus put another rung on the ladder toward dominating the BCHL
Seri......................WHAT THE HELL AM I SAYING!! Cut out that crap! All that happened was our Grizzlies went to Duncan on December 1 and won against a very strong Cowichan Capitals with a very good goalie, Derek Dun.
The first period saw two strong teams come out of the box with an urgency to win! They played exciting and hard hockey and even though the Grizzlies probably had more chances to score in this period than the Caps, their goalie Derek Dun managed to keep the Grizz at bay even though the Grizzlies out-shot the capitals 15 to 7. At 16.52 of the first period Capitals Keyler Bruce scored from Teal Burns for the opening goal of the game. And the teddy-bears flew, as this was the Capitals annual teddy toss night!
For our noisy Victoria fans the high point of period 2 was when Victoria's young Dante Hahn scored just over three minutes in with help from the old-timer Zach Urban :P) Second period the Grizzlies were assessed 6 penalties to the Caps 3. This seemed a little strange, since the night before the Grizzlies had played such well disciplined, penalty free hockey. At the end of the second period the game was tied at 1 goal each. One more exciting thing that happened toward the end of period 2—Our Jaden Schmeisser seemed to have had enough of Keyler Bruce from Cowichan after he had hit Zach Urban in the head and they got into a hard hitting serious fight—much to the delight of the Cowichan fans!
Period 3 saw 4 goals scored! The pace of the game picked up considerably and both teams played hard hitting and very entertaining hockey (from the Grizzlies fan's point of view anyway!) The usually noisy and very supportive Caps fans were silenced during this period as Myles Fitzgerald scored at 2.16 from DJ Jones and call-up Brandon Egli. At 3.25, just over a minute later, Chase Kaiser scored from Mark McLellan and Myles Powell. The Caps did get one back at 6.18 when Jesse Nehr scored, but this was countered at 12.31 when Myles Powell scored from Zach Urban! At the end of the game the shots on goal had evened out quite a bit after Victoria led almost 2 to 1 for most of the game. The final shots were 32 for Victoria and 25 for Cowichan.
This win keeps the Grizzlies in first place in the Island series with 2 points over Alberni Valley.
The Grizzlies now have 36 points this season, Chilliwack from the Mainland division has 40 points, and Penticton from the interior division has 39 points. Our Grizzlies have played the least games out of these 3 teams—we have 1 game in hand on Chilliwack, and 2 in hand on Penticton. But of course this does not mean diddly-squat unless they loose the next couple of games and our Grizzlies win!

Victoria Grizzlies 6 - 1 Nanaimo Clippers @ Bear Mountain Arena, Nov 30th, 2012

 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.