The Victoria Grizzlies came to town on the heels of a win in Chilliwack last night as they looked to extend their recent winning ways going up against the Coquitlam Express, who have won the last 3 regular season meetings between the two teams. Coquitlam looked to not only complete the season sweep tonight with a win over the Grizzlies but also to be within arms reach of the Grizzlies for sole possession of 4th place in the costal conference.
A common trend at home, the Express hit the ground running, greatly outshooting their opponent and dominating a fast pace of play through the first 10 minutes. Their efforts wouldn’t just be for show as Emmett McHardy scored the game’s first, his 9th of the season, just after the 10 minute mark to give the Express a 1-0 lead after 20. Shots on goal at the end of the period were 22-11.
Quickly into the second period Evan Brown scored his 6th to double the Express’ lead just 4:14 seconds into the frame. The 2-0 lead however did not last long as the Grizzlies metaphorically woke up after the bear was poked as Nathan King combined with Picard and Carone to score just under 2 minutes later to cut the lead back down to a 1 goal heading into the final frame.
The third period started hot with 2 game misconducts, as well as two matching roughing penalties, being handed out within the first 2:11 seconds to Ray Hamlin and Noah Leibl. The penalties continued throughout the period with another coming at the 14 minute mark of the 2nd period to give the Express a power play where they would make no mistakes on. 40 seconds into the man advantage they found the back of the net from Mateo Dixon’s stick, tallying his 23rd of the season, and they would wrap up their night with an empty netter from Drew Garzone to seal the deal and the win 4-1 over Victoria.
This win moves the Express to within 1 point of the Victoria Grizzlies for sole possession of 4th in the conference with the same number of games played. The Alberni Valley Bulldogs, with their win over the Chiefs tonight, are still 5 points ahead sitting in 3rd place with 1 game left to play, while the Express have 3 games left to be played.
The Coquitlam Express will return to the Train Station on March 19th to take on the Nanaimo Clippers at 3pm.
Be sure to skip the line at the box office and purchase your tickets for March 19th’s game online at https://www.
