Surging Rome gives Grizzlies lift
Jamie Rome has been around hockey long enough to know that it’s not how you start the season, it’s how you finish it.
The veteran Victoria Grizzlies forward has taken that to heart this season, lighting it up since the Christmas break. All of a sudden, the Grizzlies, who had one player among the B.C. Hockey League’s top 20 scorers at the halfway point, now have three in the top 15 — and surging out of nowhere into the third spot is the veteran Rome.
The Calgary product was named the BCHL player of the week last week for racking up four goals and three assists in three victories. His 64 points are two back of injured teammate Alex Newhook and six off the pace of BCHL leading scorer Jasper Weatherby of the Wenatchee Wild.
“Jamie has always played a strong 200-foot game from the start of the season, and now he’s being rewarded around the net as pucks are finding their way in and his linemates are putting his passes in,” Grizzlies GM and head coach Craig Didmon said Thursday as his team prepared to depart for the Interior, where they’ll start a three-game weekend road trip tonight in Salmon Arm against the Silverbacks.
Rome’s output is 21 points better than his point total all of the last season, and the Grizzlies still have five games left before playoffs.
But after tasting a long playoff run a season ago, Rome is focused on one thing these days.
“The points are nice, but the wins are better,” said the 19-yearold, who has an NCAA scholarship to Western Michigan University in his back pocket.
“Getting this team into a good position for the playoffs is my focus right now, and if my points help us win, that’s great.”
Didmon started the season tinkering with his forward lines, so Rome found himself playing with different linemates most nights. But he has found a home on the Grizzlies’ No. 1 unit alongside rookie Newhook and 20-year-old Ethan Nother.
Nother, from London, Ont., has crept up to 15th spot in league scoring with 53 points. And with Cam Thompson filling in for the injured Newhook, Rome hasn’t missed a beat.
“My linemates have been great,” Rome said. “Newhook and Nother are unbelievable talents and Thompson has been great, too, so it makes my life a lot easier out there.”
What hasn’t been easy for the Grizzlies this season are threegames-in-three-days road trips. They’re winless in three such outings this season.
“That’s tough to explain, but I think now as the season is winding down, we need to treat them like home games and bring that same energy,” said Rome, whose teammates will also visit West Kelowna on Saturday and Merritt on Sunday afternoon.
With the playoffs in sight and his team jockeying with Powell River and Nanaimo for first in the Island Division, Didmon hopes his team’s focus makes the difference this weekend.
“It’s a different time of the season right now where players can see what’s at stake, whereas maybe that focus wasn’t there in those earlier trips,” Didmon said.
The Grizzlies (29-17-4-3) are one point up on the Kings and Clippers, but Nanaimo has played two more games.
The Silverbacks (23-25-3-1) enter tonight’s game fifth in the Interior Division, but are 8-2 in their last 10 games.
SLAP SHOTS: The Grizzlies got some good news on the injury front this week as it looks like captain Lucas Clark will see action this weekend after being out two weeks with a knee injury. Defenceman Drayson Pears and goaltender Zack Rose should also return this weekend, according to Didmon.