The Victoria Grizzlies are no longer undefeated. The Spruce Grove Saints 5-games losing streak is over!

Brett Barnes, as he does, takes a minor penalty but is saved by the embellishment of the takedown also being called. The extra room on the ice was exactly what rookie Lucas Achim needed to take the puck from the boards to the middle and then into the back of the net! Down 2-1, now with some momentum, Alexy Lachaine takes an offensive zone penalty with a minute'ish remaining in the opening period. This paragraph actually neatly sums up the Saints season thus far.

Then the second period turns into one of the Saints most dominant periods of hockey all season by outshooting Victoria 14-5 and outscoring the Grizzlies 2-0. Looking back, the only other period that was more dominant was the second period of the home opener in which they outscored Sherwood 2-0 and outshot the Crusaders 17-5.

8:12 into the final frame, the Grizzlies carrying the play, Saints rookie Owen Cronan skates into a Grizzlies player high stick. Is it a penalty? Technically yes, the Grizzlies player stick should not have been that high. Was it called a penalty? No. An angry Cronan skating off the ice goes full 5-year-old kid and draws himself a minor.

During the minor, an officials review overturned the on-ice call of "no goal" tying the game at three. You can argue that you cannot see the puck past the goal line but you can see that Colten Scott's entire glove went entirely behind the line to retrieve the puck. 

Scott had his best period as a Saint making 18 saves. Most of which occurred before the 4-on-4 with 2:35 remaining. For the second time tonight, the Saints took advantage of the extra room on the ice as Podein scored restoring the lead.

The high drama of a 1-goal lead with under two minutes to go was short lived as Felix Haibock, backchecking on a puck that did not make to the icing line, scored into an empty net. It took two tries but his second of the evening gave the Saints a 2-goal lead and victory!

Two Fights, Different Purposes 

With Richard Krnac (returning from injury) defending his man well, Cash Lanigan cuts across to initiate contact then throws his gloves on the ice to invite anyone to fight him. Penalty ends up being a 2 plus 10 for a hit to the head plus the fighting major. Putting your team down, even if the motive is ramping the team up, is a reason a young man gets only one game in the WHL (in which he earned himself a suspension).

Gabriel Kenny takes a crunch along the boards, replay shows a high sticking penalty could/should have been called. With no penalty coming Kenny asks for and gets the chance to fight the player. Maybe the Victoria player accepted the fight thinking he could swing momentum back towards his team. Kenny made sure that didn't happen by convincingly winning the fight.

NEXT UP:

The BCHL Showcase with games in Nisku on Monday and Tuesday.