Andy Siegel
Special to the Review
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Tuesday (Feb. 22) night marked the beginning of the much-anticipated KIJHL playoffs. The Revelstoke Grizzlies opponents in the first round are their bitter rivals from just a few clicks down the Trans-Canada Highway: the Sicamous Eagles.
The Grizzlies have had the upper hand on the Eagles over the past few seasons, having beaten them in 14 of their last 15 meetings.
However, the momentum may be on the Eagles’ side, beating the Grizzlies at the Forum on the last day of the regular season.
But, this is the playoffs. All stats are back at zero. The slate is clean. Now, a seven-game series for bragging rights and a spot in the second round of the playoffs.
As expected, it was a rowdy, packed crowd at the Forum to start the playoffs Tuesday evening.
The visiting squad was feeding off their recent win against Revelstoke skating extremely hard to start the game limiting the Grizzlies to one shot in the first six minutes.
At 13:01 the Eagles made a quick rush up the ice on the right side by Alex Smith who rifled a wrist shot across the crease which barely caught the left post careening inside the net for Sicamous’s all-important first goal.
Less than two minutes left in the first period the Eagles capitalized on a high-speed rush with a push to the goal that resulted in a tip-in on the right side of the net by Sante Canderan.
Shots after one period were much closer than usual with Sicamous on top 11-10.
But as the old adage says, a two-goal lead is the hardest one to hold in hockey.
The Grizzlies came out growling at their opponents in the second period. At 4:33, all their hard work paid off with a furious rush to the goal. A crowd in front of the net led to an unassisted goal by Collin Kozjin who’s been on fire lately.
Shortly after, Kozjin fed local crowd favourite Brandon Gallo who skated up the right side into the Eagles zone snapping a gorgeous slapshot-turned-pass on the ice to the left side of the net tipped in with precision by Owen Chamberland to tie the score at 2-2.
There were 15 penalties in the middle period with both squads going at each other very hard to get the lead goal.
Shots at the end of two periods were 21-21 with a tie score of 2–2 indicating how close a game this was.
Just before the midway point of the third period, the Eagles once again were able to somehow score a third goal on a fluke tip near the left side of the net.
Shortly after, Berg passed the puck to Gallo who fired his usual wrist shot from the point at 17:06 which found its way through a crowd in front of the net sending the fans into a frenzy. The game was tied at 3-3.
Overtime would be needed.
Both teams headed into the overtime period desperately trying to get that last goal but stingy defence and outstanding play by the netminders kept it a scoreless affair through 10 minutes.
Not long into the second overtime at 4:47, Revelstoke’s Jacob Smith and Collin Kozjin connected to find Cole Berg on the left side of the key where he snapped the puck into the back of the net completing an amazing come from behind win.
The Forum crowd went crazy celebrating the home-ice victory for their boys in what appears to be the start of a very exciting playoff series.
READ MORE: Recapping a regular season to remember at the Revelstoke Forum
READ MORE: Grizzlies lose hard-fought battle to the Sicamous Eagles, look ahead to playoffs
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josh.piercey@revelstokereview.com
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