The Princeton Posse gave up two straight games to the Revelstoke Grizzlies, Tuesday, March 26 and Wednesday, March 27, setting the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League’s (KIJHL) conference final at 3-1.
In both cases the Posse lost an early lead, and on Wednesday night allowed three goals in the last three-and-a-half minutes of the game to hand Revelstoke a 4-2 victory.
Princeton’s Josh Roy opened the scoring early in the first period, assisted by Ty Russell and Dayton Nelson.
Bryton Morrow, with help from Brennan Watterson and Grady Sterling-Ponech, made it a 2-0 contest midway through the frame.
Daniel Wittenberg started the Grizzly comeback, late in the period, with assists credited to Luke Ashton and Mikkel Hrechka.
The second period was scoreless and the play was end-to-end, until the game’s dying minutes.
Austin Wooley, Luke Aston and Alexander Bronswyk all got past Princeton goalie Blake Sittler, who made 42 saves on 45 shots.
In net for Revelstoke Jozef Kuchaslo made 31 stops.
The previous night Princeton was again first on the board, courtesy of Anmol Garcha, assisted by Lucas Sadownyk and Carson Hebert midway during the first period.
Morrow made the game 2-0 in the second period, on a breakaway.
The Grizzlies owned the third period with four unanswered goals off the sticks of Wittenberg, Nathan White, Hrechka, and Brady Schwab, two of them on the power play and the last one on an empty net.
Assists were notched by Schwab, Hrechka, Brady Augot, Jake Neufeld, Jett Pattola, and Kuy Schmirler.
Vinay Junek scored for Princeton with less than a minute of play, assisted by Garcha and Sterling-Ponech, and the game ended 4-3.
The Grizzlies will play in Princeton Friday, March 29, with the puck dropping at 7 p.m.
Should Revelstoke beat the Posse on home ice Friday, the Grizzlies will move on to play for the Teck Cup.
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