Special to the Review
By Andy Siegel
The Revelstoke Forum was full Saturday (Jan. 27) night with 780 fans to witness a 9–1 lopsided victory for the Revelstoke Grizzlies over the Chase Heat.
After Saturday’s blowout win, the Grizzlies are sitting second in the Doug Birks Division of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL), while Chase sit at the bottom of the division with 23 points. The win helped the Grizzlies get a couple of points over the Kamloops Storm who have challenged them for second in the division. The Grizzlies are now in a three-way tie at 57 points for second in the league with the Princeton Posse and the Beaver Valley Nitehawks.
A number of players notched multiple points on the evening, including a well-deserved hat trick for Daniel Wittenberg and three point tallies for Brady Schwab, Luke Aston, and Mikkel Hrechka.
Commenting on his performance Saturday, Wittenberg said “[i]t felt like my game evolved throughout the night and had a feeling in warmupeveryone on the team was going to play well.”
“I had a bit of puck luck with two goals bouncing off my pants and skate,” he said.
Revelstoke wasted no time getting on the scoreboard with two quick scores to start the game on a positive note.
The first goal at 2:55 was off a quick rebound to the right side of the crease by Mikkel Hrechka who snapped the puck into the upper portion of the net. Assists went to Wittenberg and Diego Smith.
90 seconds later, David Ander released a quick low snap shot that pinged off the right post going in for the score.
The Grizzlies onslaught continued at 7:05 when Wittenberg had a shot from the top of the right key by Luke Aston bounce off his leg and into the net. Stewart was awarded his second assist of the contest on the score.
With 3:09 left in the opening frame, Ethan Coventry found the back of the net off a shot from the right side, assisted again by Aston and Kyle Federico.
The shot tally after the first period was 22–4, indicative of the on-ice dominance by Revelstoke.
Just 1:41 into the second period, the fifth Grizzlies goal was scored by captain Brady Schwab from between the keys on assists by Federico and Ander.
It went from bad to worse for the Heat giving up a sixth goal of the contest when Luke Aston fed Mikkel Hrechka who released a slap shot from the point that was tipped and then shot in by Daniel Wittenberg.
Wittenberg’s hot streak on the evening continued as he completed the hat trick with his third goal at 13:05 that bounced in the goal off his skate on assists again by Hrechka and Smith.
With 24.7 seconds left in the second period, two fights involving multiple Grizzlies players coming to the aid of each other. Four 10-minute misconducts were awarded from the incident but no game ejections.
Grizzlies’ eighth goal came on a wrist shot from the centre point, tipped in for his second score of the evening by Brady Schwab.
The Revelstoke scoring continued into the final frame at 8:31 when Kuy Schmirler and Ethan Coventry connected on passes to Farris Meddeb who waited patiently on the left side of the slot, flicking a wrist shot that sailed into the upper left corner.
The Heat finally broke the shutout at 11:19 for the final score of the contest on a wrist shot by Andrew Morris from the left key to end their frustrating night.
Reflecting on upcoming games Wittenberg said “you can’t count out 100 Mile House or Chase leading up to the playoffs but we do need to play well against Sicamous Friday since that’s important in the standings.”
Up next on the Grizzlies schedule is another Tuesday (Jan. 30) home game against the 100 Mile House Wranglers.
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