Victoria, BC – It was a beautiful start, and an ugly finish for the Warriors on Friday night.
It was game 2 on the six day Island road trip for West Kelowna, as they travelled to the Q Centre in our Provincial Capital for their one and only meeting this season with the Victoria Grizzlies.
After a scoreless first period, where Warriors netminder Jack Lisson was sensational, the Warriors were able to strike early, as an Eliot Compton rush to the front of the net was initially thwarted by a pokecheck from Oliver Auyeung-Ashton, but the puck came right to Ian Alonso, who pumped the rebound through the netminder for his first BCHL goal at 3:10 of the 2nd. Four minutes later, it was the “Big Cat” Elias Callgren lighting the lamp for the first time in his BC Hockey League career, as he pulled off a beautiful power move to beat Auyeung-Ashton to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes,
The Grizzlies mounted a comeback in the third period, as Alex Hebblethwaite stuck on the powerplay to cut the lead in half, followed by Seamus Latta beating Simon Houge wide and slipping one past the glove of Lisson to even the game up, and force the game to extra time.
In Overtime, Victoria was able to get the winner off a strange one, as Chase Pirtle threw the puck towards the front of the net, as it ricocheted off Jackson Kyrkostas’s skate, Lisson’s stick, and into the back of the net to give the Grizzlies the victory.
Between the pipes, Jack Lisson was sensational despite the loss, turning aside 47 of 50 Victoria shots in defeat.
The Warriors will have to have a short memory, as they’re back in action in less than 24 hours, when they travel north to Duncan to battle the Cowichan Valley Capitals. Catch the call of the game with JP and Pastor Don on AM 1150 and FloHockey.
PHOTO: Kyle Robinson Photography
