Andy Siegel
Special to the Review
It was another dominant weekend for the Revelstoke Grizzlies as they played two games last weekend to maintain their dominance in the Doug Birks Division.
An enthusiastic half-capacity crowd filled the Revelstoke Forum for a highly anticipated match-up against the rival Kamloops Storm.
It was a later start than usual at 8 p.m. due to a snow “Storm” delaying Kamloops on the Trans Canada Highway.
The opening period was a tight back and forth battle between both teams as neither wanting to give up the first goal.
At 4:25 of the first period, Grizzlies’ captain Cole Berg converted an outstanding rush down the right boards sliding towards the goal, rifling a quick low wrist shot to the right corner of the net to put the Grizzlies up 1-0.
It was exactly what the home team needed to get the early lead on their division rivals, who were nipping at their heels just one point behind in the division standings.
Shots after the first period were 12-9 for the home team.
The second period started with a questionable penalty call on Revelstoke since it appeared the Kamloops player gave a hit to the head which was retaliated on by the Grizzlies’ Ronin Pusch resulting in the infraction.
No goals came from the penalty but Brandon Weare made an incredible high glove save on a cross-ice shot from the top of the left key.
A quarter of the way through the second frame, Kamloops went ahead on the shots 16-14 indicating how hard they were working to tie the score. The next goal was looking pivotal for both teams.
With five minutes left in the middle period, it was turning into a dogfight. This seemed like the hardest-hitting game of the season for and against the Grizzlies, most of them of the clean bodycheck variety.
Revelstoke was slamming their opponents whenever possible, led by Gallo, the smallest player on the Grizzlies, who was on a mission throwing an assortment of pounding body checks every chance he had to punish the visitors from Kamloops.
Shots after the second were 29-26 in favour of the Grizzlies.
In the third period, tensions were high with both teams realizing goals would be hard to come by in this game.
Halfway through the final period, the shots were almost dead even 34-33.
Thirteen seconds after Devin Benson took a hooking penalty for Kamloops, the Grizzlies scored what appeared to be the game-clinching goal at 10:16.
Vin Jackson made a beautiful pass across the crease to Pusch who perfectly tipped the puck in the right side of the net.
Six minutes later, at 16:36, Brady Augot put the icing on the cake on a pass from Gallo. Augot made a gorgeous inside-out move to the top of the crease where he snapped an amazing shot through the goalie’s pads into the back of the net.
The final shots on goal were 43-40 Revelstoke.
It was a huge 3-0 win for the Grizzlies to put them out in front of the division heading into the late-season push for a top playoff position.
On Saturday, another supportive half-capacity crowd greeted the Grizzlies for the second game of the team’s weekend homestand up against the North Okanagan Knights.
On a defensive breakdown within a few minutes of the start of the game, Revelstoke gave up a breakaway which backup goalie Josef Kuchaslo made a great save to keep it scoreless.
Soon after, Ethan Mattern got the crowd on their feet with a crunching but clean hit to a Knights player that sent both players sprawling to the ice.
At 10:54 Revelstoke’s Pusch opened the scoring for the Grizzlies on a quick snapshot from directly in front of the goal assisted by Luke Aston.
Not wasting any time, Revelstoke kept the pressure on resulting in a goal at 16:16 from the right side of the net scored by Carter Bettenson assisted by Jackson.
Shortly after at 18:53, the Grizzlies notched their third goal of the evening when Kaleb West and Jackson again connected to feed Spencer Macdonald who scored his second goal of the season.
Shots after one period were dominated by the Grizzlies 18-3.
Opening the scoring in the second period at 1:34 for the home team was Pusch again, assisted by Aston and Gallo, notching his 18th assist of the season.
With 1:47 left in the middle frame, Revelstoke’s Porter Trevelyan was slapped with a five minute major and game misconduct for a knee on knee hit to a Knights player.
The shots were 29-14 in favour of Revelstoke after two periods of play.
The third period was uneventful with no goals and only two penalties called as the Grizzlies cruised to a second shutout win, this time 4-0.
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