Grizzlies recover to win at Kings

VICTORIA 6 PRINCE GEORGE 3

Fighting the January blahs, the Victoria Grizzlies snapped out of it just in time for a 6-3 road victory over the Prince George Spruce Kings on Saturday night.

Down 1-0 and 2-1, the Grizzlies, who had just two wins in seven tries in the new year, fought back with goals 1:16 apart from newcomer Thomas Gobeil and Brett Gruber early in the second period, and never surrendered the lead.

Gruber added his second early in the third and Meirs Moore and Zach Dixon also scored for the Grizzlies, who chased former South Island Royals goalie Jesse Jenks from the Spruce Kings’ net. Cole Todd got one back for Prince George.

The Spruce Kings took a 1-0 lead as Jeremiah Luedtke wasted little time, tallying, just 1:13 in, before Victoria’s Dane Gibson tied it at 7:59 with his third goal in two nights. Just 1:08 later, the hosts capitalized on yet another giveaway as Cole McCaskill finished off a negligent 4-on-0 break.

After suffering back-toback third-period collapses in Cowichan Valley on Tuesday and Chilliwack on Friday, the Grizzlies hung on to improve to 19-14-1-9. Victoria moves into a tie for second in the Island Division. Victoria heads to Alberni Valley on Wednesday before playing the next four at home. “You look at our February schedule and it’s almost all Island teams,” Grizzlies assistant coach Scott Hawthorne said. “We know we’ll be fighting for home advantage in playoffs.

“Nanaimo has more than 10 points on us, but I don’t think any team is not catchable. But, looking at the flip side, Cowichan just beat us so I don’t think any team is feeling safe right now. We want to set our sights high, though,” added Hawthorne.

Mike Stiliadis earned the win in goal for Victoria.