A battle of the special teams specialists will start Friday night as the Victoria Grizzlies take on the Powell River Kings at Bear Mountain Arena.
The Grizzlies finished off regular season play with the top ranked penalty kill after getting away unscathed 87.58 per cent of the time they were a man short. The Kings on the other hand held the top powerplay spot capitalizing on their man advantages 28.61 per cent of the time.
“The biggest thing is the Grizzlies had the number one penalty kill in the league, which will really help them versus Powell River the number one powerplay in the league,” says Grizzlies broadcaster Scott Didmon. “It’s going to be a battle of teams scoring even strength and a battle of depth.”
These two high calibre teams met only four times during the regular season with the results heavily favouring the Grizzlies who, by small margins, took all four games, two on the road and two at home.
“The great part of our league is the games are recorded,” says Didmon. “They can watch all four DVDs of the games, and watch and watch and watch.
“It’s all about the video; they can capture all that memory of only four games.”
Both of these teams had byes into the second round of playoffs with plenty of time for going over past games played, but more recently the Kings were able to give themselves more time off after winning their second round series against the Surrey eagles in five games. Meanwhile the Grizzlies are coming out of a seven game dual with the Cowichan Valley Capitals that ended on Tuesday.
“We had our backs against the wall and were facing elimination,” says Didmon. “It was like being shot out of a bow and arrow. A real wake up call, and I think it’s going to help them.”
Friday night’s game will prove whether Victoria is now carrying momentum and a sense of urgency after their long round two bout. And the Kings will be challenged by starting on the road after a week off.
Kings broadcaster Dean Merrick thinks that in spite of time off the team is ready and raring to go.
“They have depth through their forward lines and strong goaltending,” says Merrick. “We’ve been a really good road team.”
Despite the Kings losing record when it comes to the Grizzlies Merrick says that he doesn’t see it as a big determining factor.
“I don’t think they’ve seen our true team. We’re going to have to bring an entire team effort for the entire 60 minutes.
“There’s going to be a lot of talent out here and some good special teams,” says Merrick.
