After making one last trip to Merritt to face the Centennials, the Revelstoke Grizzlies finished their playoff series on a crowd-pleasing home win on Friday, March 7, with sights now set on the Princeton Posse.
First playing two games last week at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena, Revelstoke went home with a steep 6-2 victory and subsequent 2-3 loss.
In a tight game for shots on net Monday, March 3, Revelstoke still dominated at the goal, with Colton McLeod scoring twice, including the game-winner, and Daniel Wittenberg recording two assists.
The tables turned Tuesday, March 4, as the Grizzlies outshot the Centennials by 11 but couldn't find the net until the last two minutes of the third frame. With their team short two and all hope seemingly lost, Liam O'Neill and McLeod each scored just 20 seconds apart. With another chance to win it over time, Revelstoke succumbed to Merritt's Maxim Radmanovich, who fired the winning shot unassisted and had also scored the previous night.
Reassembling Friday night at the Revelstoke Forum, the Grizzlies took to the ice to make or break their series against the Centennials. One of the largest crowds of the year so far piled into the arena, with all aisles filled with standing spectators and the main door posting the game as "sold out."
Following a stale first period, things got interesting when Merritt's Dylan Ruff opened the scoring on a power play about six minutes into the second. Revelstoke was outshooting Merrit 27-17 approaching the end of the period.
Merritt would eventually catch up to Revelstoke's nearly 40 attempts on goal, and 25 penalties including several tripping and misconduct calls littered the night and kept tensions high. But Ryder Ponto played fiercely in the net, blocking 34 shots, diving into free-for-alls, and even leaving goal to face runaway Centennial players head-on.
Left with just the third frame to take back the night, Jett Patola rose to the occasion and would go on to lead the game with three points. Two-and-a-half minutes into the period, the puck blasted off from the Grizzlies' goal, and Patola grabbed it to zoom through a gap in Merritt's offence and sneak the puck in low on the goalie's left side. The assist went to Connor Shymoniak.
The Centennials couldn't profit on numerous opportunities in the third to regain their lead, even with the puck at their stick, no defenders on them, and a vulnerable goal just meters away. Then, with six minutes left, O'Neill and Patola sent the puck from the right corner of Merritt's side to find Keiran Keilly skid to the net from left and sneak in a second goal for Revelstoke.
“We said to each other on the bench that we need to go to the net," Patola said, referring to Keilly. "Then I got the puck and saw him driving back door, so I just thought I’d throw it to him and hope for the best."
“That was just a great play," Keilly said. "It was four on four and I saw Jett on the wing and just decided to go to the net, and it was a great vision by Jett. He just put the puck right on my stick and all I had to do was just tap it in. We sort of just need to keep doing that to further us in the playoffs."
Merritt nearly tied things up with two minutes to go. The missed opportunity resulted in two or three different fights breaking out simultaneously, helmets off and bodies on the ice, in the heat of the action.
“The team was just in desperation mode and nobody wanted to travel tomorrow," Keilly said. "So it was go, go, go, sort of channelling that, trying to just bury them at home and get the week off before the hard fight against Princeton.”
Finally, as the Centennials pulled their goalie in the final minute of play, Patola near the blue line fired through a hole in the defence to seal Merritt's doom, with 36 seconds left on the clock.
“It was good to get those goals in the third and going into the period down by one goal, it’s good to bounce back from that," Patola said. "It’s good that we just battled through some adversity there with some penalties and got the win."
“It was a great series," Shymoniak added. "Hard fought, but we found a way to get through it and get to the next round."
Heading into the next playoff series against Princeton, Patola explained it won't be a cakewalk for the Grizzlies and they've got some key drilling on their to-do list.
“We know Princeton is a good team, so we've just got to come to practice this weekend and work on the little things, such as our forecheck, and bring it to the next weekend," he said.
For the latest scores and game schedules, visit revelstokegrizzlies.com/stats/schedule.
