How appropriate that on a night in which it was raining cats and dogs, the ’Dawgs would make the biggest splash.
Mitch Oliver’s controversial goal at 3:38 of overtime lifted the visiting Alberni Valley Bulldogs to a 3-2 victory over the Victoria Grizzlies on a night in which it was so quiet at The Q Centre on Wednesday that you could have heard the rain fall outside.
With no more than 300 fans in the building, on a miserable evening, Oliver took advantage of a blown offside call as the linesman on the far side fell and the other wasn’t there to make the call.
In any case, the Grizzlies blew a 2-1 lead, allowing Alberni to hang around and take the bonus point.
“They played a good road game. Unfortunately, that was a valuable point in a division game,” said Grizzlies general manager and head coach Craig Didmon. “We have to be better.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who are not finding their stride. To have (13) shots in the final two periods is not good enough. It’s effort. It’s preparation. It’s the mental side of the game in a lot of ways. They stuck to their system and they had us frustrated at times,” he added. “Sometimes these third periods can slip away.”
This one certainly did as Jackson Doucet pounced on a defensive mistake and buried the loose puck behind Victoria goalie Zack Rose at 1:35 to tie it at 2-2.
The game began quick enough as the Dawgs’ Isaac Tonkin-Palmer tallied just 25 seconds in on a shot that might have deflected off a defenceman. Grizzlies captain Lucas Clark evened it at 1:21 thanks to a great feed in front from Ryan Nolan, but it was the last shot the hosts would have for a stretch of 13:58.
They came alive again on a power play as 16-year-old Alex Newhook banged in a cross-ice pass to make it 2-1 at 16:24.
Rose turned aside Ryan Steele’s offering early in the second period as he was allowed to skate out front alone, and also made a pad save off Keaton Mastrodonato on a breakaway late in that middle stanza. They were two of 26 stops on the night, while Colten Lancaster faced just 23 in total as the Grizzlies offence looks anemic at this point.
The Grizzlies were coming off three road games in three days, all losses, while the Bulldogs had swept a home-and-home series against Cowichan Valley, winning 4-1 at home and 2-1 in overtime in Duncan.
The Grizzlies fall to 7-6-1-0 and are now just one point ahead of the Bulldogs, who sit at 6-5-1-1 with a game in hand.
Victoria is at home Friday to the Coquitlam Express before heading to Port Alberni on Sunday afternoon.
