By Cassandra Federico, Special to the Times Review
The Revelstoke Grizzlies took three out of a possible four points this past weekend with an overtime loss on the road, and a huge win over their division rivals on home ice.
On Friday night, Revelstoke travelled to Armstrong to take on the North Okanagan Knights. Despite being outshot 48-24, the Knights were victorious, beating the Grizzlies 4-3 in double overtime.
North Okanagan opened the scoring at 18:38 in the first period. The Knights would also scoop the second goal on a powerplay at 11:00 in the second period. The Grizzlies had many scoring opportunities in both periods, but they couldn’t capitalize on any, leaving them trailing the Knights 2-0 going into the third period.
Revelstoke came out strong in the third period, with a goal only 26 seconds in scored by Louie Federico, assisted by Josh Pilon. At 17:52 Ethan Waitzner tied the game with help from Pilon and Riley Creighton. Tristan Simm scored to take the lead at 12:25, assisted by Kieran Brunetti.
The Knights responded with a power play goal from Trent Redschlag at 7:10 to even the score. Neither team would take the lead back in the third period, sending the game into overtime.
Less than a minute into the second period of three on three overtime, Logan Geefs scored to take the win for the Knights.
The Grizzlies were back home on Saturday night to take on division rivals the 100 Mile House Wranglers. The Grizzlies were looking for revenge on the Wranglers, after their 3-2 loss the last time the Wranglers were in town. Revenge they got by beating the Wranglers 6-3 in front of an excited crowd at the forum.
The Grizzlies were first to get on the scoreboard with a goal from Federico, assisted by Pilon and Waitzner at 10:10 of the first period. The Wranglers evened the score at 14:43 in the second period. Kyle Baron then took the lead back for the Grizzlies at 12:23 with help from Kenny Batke and Pilon.
The Grizzlies went into the third period with a 2-1 lead on the Wranglers. Their one goal lead didn't last long, when Travis Roche tied the game for 100 Mile on the power play goal. Revelstoke responded to restore their lead at 13:03 when Kenny Batke scored on a bouncing shot from the neutral zone. Derek Miskiman got the assist. Revelstoke kept the momentum going with another goal from Tyler Chavez Leech assisted by Steven Fiust and Carter Huber at 8:11. Fiust added a fifth goal three minutes later to give Revelstoke a three goal lead.
Nick Hendrick narrowed Revelstoke’s lead with a third goal for the Wranglers at 4:26. To finish off a scrappy third period, Jeff Bochon drove to the net, and scored an unassisted, short-handed goal with less than two minutes left in the game to give the Grizzlies a 6-3 win.
Coach Ryan Parent felt that the Grizzlies played two good games this weekend, but they were lacking in a few areas on Friday Night.
"Despite out shooting the other team substantially, I think we needed to focus a bit more on some specific areas in the offensive zone," he said of the Friday night game.
He felt that the team improved their play on Saturday in the areas they were lacking on the previous night, which lead to a more successful outcome.
"The guys were much more determined [on Saturday], and I liked their compete in both the offensive, and defensive zones" Parent noted.
He praised the play of new goaltender Aidan Doak on Saturday night. "He has proven to be a strong asset to our team" Parent said.
The Grizzlies are one game away from reaching the halfway point of the regular season. They currently are sitting in fourth place in the very tight Doug Birks division, two points back of Sicamous and three points behind 100 Mile.
Parent is happy with how much progress the young team has made in the first half of the season. "We are playing the right way now, and we need to keep forging ahead, and playing hard," he said.
Parent stated his hopes for the second half of the season. "We want to be a strong presence in our division, and I think the way we are going now is in that direction, so we need to continue going in that direction," he stated.
The Grizzlies will be travelling to Sicamous this Tuesday November, 25 to take on their division rivals. On Friday they are heading to Princeton to take on the Posse. The Grizzlies will be back at home on Tuesday, December, 9, when the Kamloops Storm are in town.