The Grizzlies are now more than halfway through their KIJHL season. Having been in first place through most of the season, they are now fighting hard to regain that positioning.

The team is vying for first against the Fernie Ghostriders, the Spokane Braves and many more opponents starting to pack tightly together as teams are truly starting to mesh. This should make for an interesting second half as teams such as Fernie, Sicamous, Castlegar, Nelson and Creston Valley are posting strong ten-game records.

The Grizzlies played the Penticton Lakers on Nov. 25. The Lakers were up a power play goal, barely a minute into the game from Colton Schell. The Lakers’ Brendan Persley added another six minutes later sending our Grizz to the lockers down by two. The second period saw no scoring and a slew of Grizzlies penalties. “We were gross in the second and third period,” said coach Troy Mick stated. “We started okay, but spent most of our time in the box for most of the second.”

Caleb Roy brought the Grizz within one goal, potting his eighth of the year, but it was not to be. Brendan Persley dimmed the Grizz’s lights with less than two minutes to go and then added another to get a natural hat trick and send the Grizz home with a 4-1 loss.

On Friday, Nov. 27, the Grizzlies were ready to show the hometown crowd some of their own Moonlight Madness with the Kamloops Storm in the Forum. Always a strong rivalry, the Grizzlies started the seesaw scoring off with Luke Richardson netting a nice feed from returnee Faiz Khan. Coach Mick was pleased to have him back in the line-up and now has many options for mixing and matching lines. The Storm tied it up before the end of the first, 1-1.

In the second period, rookie Brendan Burge deflected in his third of the year on a feed from Lucas Blinkhorn. The Storm’s Rylee Orr responded, but Captain Blinkhorn wanted the last word to end the second; giving the Grizz the lead, 3-2 on a nice goal.

In the third period, the Storm came out ready to win this match as Rylee Orr pretended he was Bobby Orr, tying the game with five minutes to go. Kyle Ceretzke took a costly penalty late in the game, but the Grizz killed it off. Overtime was the ‘Certs’ show as he redeemed himself from that penalty by going coast to coast, and scoring the game winner. Lucas Blinkhorn assisted on the game-winning goal giving the Grizz a much-deserved, hometown, overtime win of 5-3. His coveted, aggressive play coupled with another three point night for the Captain had Coach Mick ecstatic, “Lucas has been everything I could hope for in a captain. He leads on and off the ice. In every game, he’s usually one of our best players. He takes key face-offs, excels on the penalty kill and power plays. When guys work as hard as he does and buy into the team philosophy, then team success comes first and individual success follows.”

Fast forward to Saturday and the Grizz were on the road to Chase to battle the Chiefs. Brad Friedrich was the first star of the game and is one of many Grizzlies who can help carry the load of this team down the stretch. ‘Freddy’ started the scoring off from Reid Blinkhorn and Riley Spraggs with less than four minutes to go in the first period.

The Chiefs responded with a power play goal more than halfway through the second from Brett Laird. Faiz Khan put the Grizz up two minutes after that, snagging his twelfth goal of the year on a power play. Riley Spraggs grabbed third star this night and posted three assists; including the next goal. His third assist came forty seconds after his goal. Spraggs and Jordan Bledsoe fed ‘hot-hands’ Luke Richardson to put the Grizz up 4-1 at the end of the second.

The third saw a slight bounce-back from the Chiefs, as Brock Balson added one. Two minutes later, Reid Blinkhorn was sent to the box on a boarding call and on the ensuing power play, the Chiefs’ leading scorer, veteran Devin Hobbs, brought them within one goal. The Grizzlies were able to stave off the Chiefs to the end, and a last minute pulling of the goalie offered Lucas Blinkhorn an empty-net, insurance goal to cap it off 5-3.

The Grizzlies have two home games in the first weekend of December. Coming up, they play the North Okanagan Knights in Revelstoke on Saturday, Dec. 5. Then they have another home game and a possibly, outstanding rematch against the Penticton Lakers who handed them their only loss last week. This is also Hockeyville Day at the Forum. Come out in your jerseys, bring your noise makers, and show your support. What an amazing way to spend a Sunday! Don’t forget to get your stories in to the website as soon as possible or contact Gary McLaughlin for any inquiries. Let’s go Grizzlies!