by Eric Welsh – The Progress
A six point night from Chilliwack captain Jordan Kawaguchi helped his Chiefs blast the Victoria Grizzlies 7-3 in their series opener Friday night at Prospera Centre.
The first period absolutely couldn’t have gone any better for the Chiefs, who peppered the Victoria net with 14 shots and punched four pucks past Galajda.
Chilliwack opened the scoring on a power play just 1:50 in as Kawaguchi put a wrist shot on net from the high slot. Galajda left the rebound on the doorstep where Jake Smith was waiting to bury it.
Tommy Lee doubled the lead at 7:40 with a shorthanded goal. The Calgary kid started the play, picking off an ill-advised cross-ice pass and leading a two-on-none rush the other way. Lee slid the puck to Cole Poliziani who gave it right back. Lee popped the puck behind Galajda for his first of the playoffs.
Carver Watson scored a beauuuutiful goal at 13:41. The swift-skating Chilliwack blueliner gave the puck to Kawaguchi and headed toward the net. Gooch peeled off toward the right-wing wall and threaded a perfect cross-ice saucer pass through traffic to Watson at the far post. The D-man chipped the puck up and over Galajda for a 3-0 Chiefs lead.
Another pretty one made it 4-0 at 15:57.
On the power play, Kawaguchi delivered a cross-ice pass to Kohen Olischefski. While most players would have fired the puck on net, Olly was patient, sliding it across the goal-mouth to Will Calverley for the easy finish.
The Grizzlies got a late power play goal of their own from Jamie Rome, who deflected a Cole Pickup one-timer at 19:49.
Chilliwack’s Anthony Vincent scored the only goal of period two, chasing Galajda from the game 62 seconds in. Kawaguchi picked up his third point with a pass across the goal-mouth to Vincent who roofed the puck and ushered Grizzly backup Tony Rehm into the game.
The Chiefs scored their sixth goal four minutes into the final frame, with Olischefski setting up Vincent for his second of the game.
Victoria’s Drayson Pears helped Chilliwack to a seventh goal when he took a run at Kawaguchi and drew a double minor for high sticking and a blow to the head. Captain K made him pay on the PP with a pass to Ben Fanjoy, who put the puck under the crossbar for his fifth of the postseason.
With the game well in hand, Sinclair got a rest for the final seven and a half minutes as backup Mathieu Caron took over.
Victoria wrapped up the scoring with a late power play by Cody Van Lierop.
The three stars were Kawaguchi (first), Vincent (second) and Watson (third).
The Fortis BC Energy Player of the Game was Lee.
Attendance was 2,692.
Game two of the best of seven series is Saturday night with a 7 p.m. start at Prospera Centre.
