Grizzlies’ veterans ready to lead the way back
Their backs are against the wall and there is only one way out.
Down 3-1 in the best-of-seven B.C. Hockey League semifinal series against the Chilliwack Chiefs, the Victoria Grizzlies are going to have to scratch and claw their way back, beginning with Game 5 tonight at Prospera Centre.
Facing elimination, the Grizzlies need a win tonight to bring the best-of-seven back to The Q Centre for Saturday night.
“We’re not out of it yet,” insisted captain Cody Van Lierop. “We’ve got a game in their barn, we’ve already taken one there so we know we can do it. I think everyone in our room realizes we’re fighting for our lives now and I think you’ll see our best game out there.”
Van Lierop, for one, does not want this to be his last junior game ever.
“I know for me, it’s my 20-yearold year and there are five other guys where it’s do-or-die for them, too. I know that they’re going to pour their hearts on the ice, just the way I’m going to, so don’t count us out yet,” he added.
They are expected to do it without starting netminder Matthew Galajda, who left Wednesday’s 4-3 loss in Game 4 with what was preliminarily being called a concussion.
“It’s a tough blow,” Van Lierop said of losing the Island Division’s most valuable player and BCHL second-team all-star. “I didn’t see the whole play, but I heard the guy fell into him a little bit.
“It’s a big loss, but I know Tony is going to give us just as good an opportunity as Matthew does. We have to just play strong in front of him and make sure we put more pucks on the net than they do,” Van Lierop said of playing in front of backup Tony Rehm.
Westshore Wolves netminder Shawn Parkinson is expected to be called in as a backup for Rehm.
Victoria managed to bounce back from a 3-2 games deficit against Powell River to win the last series. This will be a taller order.
“We have to play the way we’re playing. We’re getting stronger as it goes. This series started with a real uphill battle and the playing field is starting to even out. We have to do one more better than we did last series as far as winning two in a row,” said Grizzlies GM and head coach Craig Didmon.
“We’re just going to go in [today] and focus on living to play another day in our barn. We’ve got a great leadership group here and they want it. They are battlers,” he said of his 20-year-olds.
The good news is the Grizzlies did win the last time they met at Prospera Centre, but a big reason for that was Galajda’s third shutout of the playoffs in a 2-0 win.
Victoria had its chances on Wednesday, rallying from being down 2-1 when Galajda left the game with 56.4 seconds to go in the opening frame. The Grizzlies grabbed a 3-2 lead and were tied 3-3 to start the third period.
“They got that lucky 3-on-1 weird bounce in front of our bench,” Van Lierop said of the tying goal. “[Jordan] Kawaguchi, whenever he has an opportunity, is going to put it in the net or put it on someone else’s stick. We can’t give him those opportunities.
“Going into the final period, we would have rather been up by one, and then it was an unlucky bounce on the penalty kill for us,” he added of the Chiefs’ winning goal on a power play 50 seconds into the third. “We couldn’t find the back of the net for the rest of the period.”