by Eric Welsh – The Progress
The Chiefs turned in their best home-ice performance of the 2017-18 BCHL season Sunday afternoon, dumping the Victoria Grizzlies by a 4-2 count at Prospera Centre.
The Chiefs showed their fans what they can be when everything clicks, and they did it against a good team, earning two points against the Island division’s second place squad.
Chilliwack improved to 21-18-2-3 with the win while the Grizzlies fell to 24-16-4-2.
The Chiefs turned in a period of pure dominance to open this game.
Chilliwack owned the puck and the shot-clock in period one, peppering the Victoria net with 11 pucks while allowing just two Grizzlies to test Chiefs netminder Mathieu Caron.
But the score remaining 0-0 through 20 minutes.
The second period was just as one-sided as the first, and this time Chilliwack put a few pucks behind Grizzly goalie Kurtis Chapman.
The Chiefs scored their first at 6:25.
Kaden Pickering picked up the disc in the left corner and skated it into the slot, where he had it poked off his stick by a Victoria defender. Tommy Lee got to the puck first and, from 15 feet out, lifted a top-shelf backhander over Chapman’s glove for his 13th of the year.
Ryan Bowen doubled the lead at 11:53, scoring on a wraparound to cap a shift spent entirely in the Grizzly end.
The visitors got one back at the 16 minute mark.
While killing a penalty, T.J. Friedmann chipped a puck past Chilliwack D-man Marcus Tesink at his own blueline and took off down the left wing. With Chiefs forward Corey Andonovski racing back and taking away the middle, Friedmann rifled a shot from the left faceoff circle that evaded Caron’s glove.
But Caron’s crew restored their two-goal cushion with 74 seconds remaining in the middle frame.
Working along the left-wing wall, Chiefs captain Will Calverley delivered a pass to Bryan Allbee at the point. The blueliner launched a rocket that Chapman stopped. But he left a rebound in the goal-mouth for PJ Marrocco, who slid the puck through the legs of the keeper for his fifth of the season.
Chilliwack out-shot Victoria 15-6 in period two.
The Grizzlies got back within one just 49 seconds into the final frame, with Friedmann netting his second of the game on the power play. Chiefs forward Anthony Vincent was given a rare two minutes for tripping-slew footing. Moments later, with teammate Justin Michaelian providing a screen in the goal-mouth, Friedmann lasered a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle, lighting the lamp with his 15th of the season.
A power play that has refused to come through in big moments came through with a clutch goal at 6:46.
Lee pulled the trigger on his second of the game, burying a cross-ice feed from Pickering for what would be the game’s final goal.
The three stars were Lee (first), Friedmann (second) and Marrocco (third).
The Fortis BC Energy Player of the Game was Anthony Vincent.
