Special to the Review
By Andy Siegel
Another large crowd of nearly 800 fans turned out at the Revelstoke Forum Saturday night (Feb. 3) to watch the Revelstoke Grizzlies extend their division lead, demolishing the 100 Mile House Wranglers in a 10-0 blowout.
After their win on Friday against their division rivals, the Sicamous Eagles, the Grizzlies had the opportunity to cushion their lead at the top of the Doug Birks Division of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL). With an authoritative 10–0 win, Revelstoke now leads the division with 63 points over the the Kamloops Storm and Sicamous Eagles who are tied with 59.
It didn’t take long for Revelstoke to start the barrage. Early in the first period, Austin Wooley, Nicholas Buckley, and David Ander scored three goals in a five minutes, starting at 5:08.
The fourth Grizzlies goal came after a shot that left the puck swirling in the crease for a few seconds before Kyle Federico tapped it into the net on the right side. Jake Neufeld and Wooley assisted for their second points of the evening, bringing the score to 4-0 at the end of the first period.
Keeping the pressure on to start the middle frame, Ethan Coventry and Daniel Wittenberg connected with Prezton Stewart on the right side of the net where he released a shot in for the score from a tight angle near the goal line at 2:33.
A minute later Kuy Schmirler swept in on the right side of the zone and snapped a mid level wrist shot into the open left side of the goal, catching the Wranglers goalie off-guard. The assist was awarded to Kaidon Mah and Jake Neufeld.
The 7th Grizzlies goal came from Jett Patola. He scored from the right side of the key on what seemed a simple wrist shot that squeaked into the tight right corner of the net. Assists on the goal went to Kesler Fyfe and Jaylen Forsyth.
With the home crowd still not tiring of singing their celebration song “Hey Baby,” just 14 seconds into the final frame, Jett Patola passed to Mikkel Hrechka who rifled a shot from the top of the slot into the top corner of the goal.
A tic-tac-toe type play between Brady Schwab,Colton McCleod and Alexander Bronswyk at 4:19 resulted in Schwab finding himself alone on the right side to shoot the puck in for an open net goal.
With frustrations boiling over for the visitors, after the Schwab score the only scrum of the game broke out with a few scraps resulting in nine penalties including four 10-minute misconducts.
Not letting up, the Grizzlies pushed for a 10th goal, finally achieving it at 14:13. Recent Grizzlies addition and local fan favourite, Prezton Stewart, took a pass from Jackson Romeril at center ice, breaking free at the blue line for an open ice breakaway releasing a low shot into the left corner.
Goaltenders for both teams played strong, with the Wranglers tandem stopping 65 additional shots despite the 10 goals. For his part, Grizzlies’ Louis Adler stopped all 24 of the shots he faced Saturday night.
The Grizzlies have the week off to rest before facing off next Friday night (Feb. 9) at the Forum against division rivals, the Kamloops Storm, at 7 p.m.