The Cowichan Capitals open up a home and home set with the Victoria Grizzlies Tuesday night at The Q Centre in Colwood, before the Grizzlies make their 2nd visit of the year to the Cowichan Community Centre Friday. Cowichan sits 1st in the Island Division at 10-4-1 on the season, two points up on Nanaimo, while Victoria is 4-9 for 5th in the Island, 6 points back of Alberni. The Capitals enter off a 3 point weekend, suffering a 6-5 shootout loss to the Trail Smoke Eaters on Friday in Duncan, before bouncing back with a 6-3 win in Powell River, to hand the Kings their 5th straight loss. The Capitals netted 11 goals on the weekend and now have a BCHL high 57 goals for this season, while Victoria’s 57 allowed are then 2nd most allowed, ahead of just West Kelowna’s 63. Matt Crasa was the story of last weekend, scoring 5 goals, to take over the team lead with 9, after a pair against Trail and his first BCHL hat trick against Powell River, notching his 3rd before the end of the 2nd period. Primo Self and David Wang tallied their first BCHL goals, while Tanner Sidaway scored in both games, for his first two of the season. The Grizzlies enter off an 0-2 weekend, in which they suffered a 5-3 loss in Alberni Valley on the Friday, before coming home to get beat 5-1 by Trail on Saturday. Victoria has won 1 of their last 8 games, but just two of those have been played at home. On the other side Cowichan has won 5 of the last 8, and collected 11 of a possible 16 points during that span.
Who’s hot: Matt Crasa was given a BCHL Player of the Week Honourable Mention with his 5 goal weekend, and now has 9 goals in just 8 games, and has quickly worked his way up the leaderboard to have the 3rd most goals in the league, behind Mitch Deelstra’s 10 and Michael Collela’s 12. Tanner Sidaway is starting to find his stride as well, recording 3 points in the Powell River game, and 2 goals and 2 assists over the weekend. Henri Schreifels leads Victoria in scoring with 7 goals and 14 points, both team highs. Victoria’s power play was clicking on the weekend as well, getting all 3 of their goals in Alberni Valley on the man advantage.
How to follow: It’s a 7:00PM puck drop from The Q Centre in Colwood, you can listen live on 89.7 Juice FM on the radio, or online at mycowichanvalleynow.com through the listen live tab. To watch the game visit HockeyTV.com for a live pay-per-view stream. The pregame show kicks off at 6:45. For end of period updates, follow the Capitals on Facebook and Twitter.
