Grizzlies, Clippers fit to be tied

For the first time this season, Alex Newhook was coming off back-to-back games without a point.

That didn’t sit well with the Victoria Grizzlies’ star 16-yearold rookie. So Friday night, he took it out on the Nanaimo Clippers.

Newhook, who came into the game third in league scoring with 56 points, tallied his 20th and 21st goals of the season to help the Grizzlies earn a hardfought single point in a 3-3 double overtime tie in front of 1,611 fans at The Q Centre.

Newhook and the Grizzlies thought they were skating away with a narrow victory, but the Clippers, losers of seven straight games, refused to go quietly. With 6.5 seconds remaining in the third period and goaltender Taz Burman pulled from an extra attacker, Cal Babych tipped a shot past Grizzlies netminder Kurtis Chapman to send the game to overtime.

“We missed a ton of chances tonight and let them stick around, so it’s disappointing not to get the two points,” Grizzlies GM and head coach Craig Didmon said.

“Alex was being Alex tonight. He could have had a few more, but it was an entertaining game for the big crowd so that was good to see.”

The single point, combined with Powell River’s 4-1 loss Friday to the Penticton Vees, moved the Grizzlies (24-16-4-3) into top spot in the B.C. Hockey League’s Island Division, one point up on the Kings. The Clippers moved to 22-20-3-3.

After the Clippers jumped out to a 2-0 lead by the 12-minute mark of the first, Newhook went to work. The player from St. John’s, N.L., headed to Boston College of the NCAA in the fall of 2019, fired a high wrister past Burman, just 35 seconds after Brodziak have given the Clippers a 2-0 cushion. Newhook then buried a Jamie Rome rebound midway through the second to draw the home team even.

After Shawn O’Malley converted a nice feed from T.J. Friedmann five minutes into third, the Grizzlies looked to be on their way. But the Clippers kept pushing and Babych silenced the crowd in the dying seconds.

Both goalies took turns robbing forwards in the overtimes, and Chapman had to look at a Clippers 4-on-3 man advantage in the double overtime when Friedmann was called for a hook.

Chapman finished with 37 saves, while Burman stopped 35 Grizzlies shots.

Next up for the Grizzlies is a Sunday afternoon date with those red-hot Vees. Penticton comes to The Q Centre for a 2 p.m. game as the No. 1 team in the BCHL.