COLWOOD — It was a night of not much space at the Q Centre for the Clippers.
The Victoria Grizzlies took a 4-1 win in a game they never trailed.
Mid way through the opening period the teams traded two goals in 43 seconds.
Chase Pirtle deflected a puck behind the Clippers Tyler Hodges and Noah Alvarez converted on a shot from the slot that fooled the Grizzlies Owen Bresson.
In the middle frame Victoria scored twice in a span of 1:24 to take over the game.
Malcolm Green cashed in on a power play and Charlie Gollub connected on a hard wrist shot.
The only other goal was a Victoria empty netter with two minutes to play by Tobias Pitka.
Nanaimo was outshot 40-28 with the Clippers going 0/2 on the man advantage and 0/1 on the penalty kill.
Even though there were only three power plays the game was physical and sometimes chippy.
The Grizzlies victory brought the season series to 4-2 in Nanaimo’s favour with one head to head game left to play on March 9.
At the end of play on Feb. 17 the Clippers held a narrow one point lead on Victoria for fourth in the Coastal Division standings.
Nanaimo now has a two game home series with Cowichan Valley on Feb. 23 and 24 at Frank Crane Arena.
The Clippers are holding a free Family Day skate at Frank Crane Arena on Monday Feb. 19 at 2:30 p.m.
Local news. Delivered. Free. Subscribe to our daily news wrap and get our top local stories delivered to your email inbox every evening
info@nanaimonewsnow.com
On Twitter: @NanaimoNewsNOW
