Chiefs take back control

The B.C. Hockey League’s hottest road playoff team rolled into The Q Centre on Tuesday night and drove off with their perfect away record still intact as the Chilliwack Chiefs paved over the Victoria Grizzlies 6-0 before an announced crowd of 1,095.

Jordan Kawaguchi, who was named a BCHL first-team all-star earlier in the day, recorded a hattrick to pace the Chiefs to a 2-1 series lead in the best-of-seven league semifinal.

Game 4 goes tonight at 7 in Colwood where the Grizzlies are now a very average 4-4 this postseason and have been shut out three times. Chilliwack is 6-0 away from Prospera Centre.

“I certainly expected a better effort,” said Grizzlies GM and head coach Craig Didmon. “I expected us to learn from some lessons earlier in the playoffs when we faced adversity. I didn’t think we handled adversity well, we let the ref get under our skin.”

The Chiefs scored three times on seven power plays while the Grizzlies were 0-for-1 on an abbreviated man advantage that came late in the game. They were their own worst enemies, however, taking needless calls — including two unsports-malike conduct penalties — against a very good special-teams club.

Three goals in eight minutes in the opening 10:58 of the second period turned a tight game into a lopsided affair.

Kohen Olischefski buried a shot high on Matthew Galajda at 2:58 of the second to make it 2-0 before Kawaguchi scored two 2:13 apart to make it 4-0 after 40 minutes. Aaron O’Neill and Justin Dixson added third-period goals, the last one came on backup Tony Rehm.

Galajda — who along with defenceman Jake Stevens was named a second-team all-star — made 30 saves and Rehm stopped two of three shots. Mark Sinclair stopped 17 for Chilliwack and was also replaced after the fifth goal. Mathieu Caron halted the one he faced in 8:17 of work.