The Powell River Kings and Victoria Grizzlies have ensured themselves and their fans at least two games at home as both teams earned big road wins Saturday night. The Kings were 3-2 winners over the Eagles in Surrey while the Grizzlies used extra time to defeat the Burnaby Express in the first overtime period at the Bill Copeland Arena in Burnaby.
Powell River 3 – Victoria 2: The two teams will now head up the Sunshine Coast even up as the Kings picked up a much needed win over the Eagles by the same score they lost by to Surrey Friday night. The game was close all night as the Kings led by single goals at the end of each period – the last being the most important after scoring with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation time.
Darcy Oakes scored the winner for the Kings with just 29 seconds remaining in the third period. Chad Niddery scored once and added an assist and Mitch MacMillan scored the other Kings marker. Kyle Bodie pickd up two assists and Chris Rawlings made 26 saves in the Powell River goal.
Ryan Adams scored once and added an assist for the Eagles while a single goal went to Phil Magistrale. Tommy Tartaglione stopped 34 of 37 shots in the Surrey goal. The series now shifts to Powell River for games three and four beginning Monday night.
Victoria 6 – Burnaby 5 OT: Despite leading most of the night, the Victoria Grizzlies needed a big goal in overtime to even their series with the Burnaby Express. The Grizzlies held twice held two goal leads only to see the Express battle back to a tie – doing so for the second time in the final 12 minutes to force the game to extra time.
Chris Santiago scored for the Grizzlies just over five minutes into overtime to give the Victoria side the win while Shaun Robertson scored once and added an assist as did Jordan Zalba. Cam Reid, Brian Nugent, and Justin Courtnall tallied the remaining Grizzlies goals while Matthew Wong made 22 saves in the Victoria goal for the win.
Lee Baldwin, Jordan Soquila, Brodie Reid, Spencer Bennett, and Carlo Finucci all recorded a goal and one assist for the Express. Kevin Jebson was the busier of the two goaltenders as he faced 39 Victoria shots. This series resumes Monday night at the Bear Mountain Arena in Victoria with game four scheduled Tuesday.
Game 1 – Reports…
Surrey 3 Powell River 2: In Surrey, the Kings and Eagles tangled in a very good contest that saw the game headed to the final minutes knotted at two before Cameron Sinclair gave the Eagles the win with a goal with just over five minutes remaining in regulation time. Teagan Muis and Nolan Toigo notched the other Eagle markers. Tommy Tartaglione stopped 28 of 30 shots for the win in goal.
Powell River got goals by Kyle Leahy and Kyle Bodie while Kyle Bodie and Clay Harvey each recorded a pair of assists. Chris Rawlings was in the Powell River goal and stopped 25 of Surrey shots.
Burnaby 5 Victoria 1 – The Burnaby Express hosted the Victoria Grizzlies in game one of their series and handed the visitors a 5-1 defeat. Brodie Reid led the way for the Burnaby side as he scored twice and added an assist. Carlo Finucci also begins the post-season with a three point night as he chipped in with a goal and two assists. Alex Valenti and Reid Edmondson scored the other Burnaby goals. Kevin Jebson stopped 23 of 24 shots in the Burnaby goal for the win.
Keen Desmet scored the lone goal for the Grizzlies while goaltending duties were shared between Paul Kolida and Matthew Wong. Wong allowed 4 goals on 15 shots while Kolida allowed a single in just over 30 minutes of play.
Both series resume Saturday night.
