The Revelstoke Grizzlies were unable to find their home-ice advantage this weekend, dropping games to the Kamloops Storm and the North Okanagan Knights.
On Friday, Nov. 11, the Grizzlies welcomed the Storm to the Revelstoke Forum.
The Grizzlies were quick to light up the board with a first-period power-play conversion delivered by Tyler Chavez Leech off Jordan Rea and Raphael Bassot.
The Storm responded in the second half of the frame with a power-play marker from Devin Leduc.
At 8:21 in the second, the Grizzlies’ Daniel Fisher broke the 1-1 stalemate with a power-play marker off Michael LeNoury. The Storm’s Evan Walls potted a short-handed goal at 3:59, tying the game up going into the third.
The Grizzlies rallied in the final act and did their best to keep the puck in the Kamloops end. But Storm goalie Kolby Pauwels wasn’t having any of it, denying all 12 shots on net. Meanwhile, the Storm were able to take advantage of two power-play opportunities, getting the puck past Grizzlies netminder Chris Wielenga. The end result was a 4-2 win for the Storm.
On Saturday night, things got ugly at the Forum when the Grizzlies hosted Armstrong’s North Okanagan Knights.
Revelstoke was first on the board with a late first-frame goal by Tyler Chavez Leech off Matthew Monk. Far from distressed, the Knights rallied to score twice before the buzzer, including a power-play conversion with 48 seconds left on the clock.
North Okanagan’s momentum continued into the first half of the second frame, adding two more goals for a 4-1 lead. Revelstoke responded at 13:56 with a Jon Vandermolen marker off Monk. The game stayed at 4-2 for the rest of the period.
In the third period, good sportsmanship quickly took a backseat to rough play, with both teams spending their share of time in the sin bin. The Grizzlies amassed nine penalties to the Knights’ 11. At the same time, the Grizzlies hammered Knights’ goalie Daniel Paul with 27 shots on net, 13 more than than the Knights. Only one of those 27 shots got past Paul, a power-play marker delivered late in the frame by Bassot off Vandermolen.
The game ended with the Grizzlies on the losing side of a 4-3 tally.