On the heels of back-to-back one-sided defeats that saw the Coyotes outscored 17-5, much of the same may have been expected as the Revelstoke Grizzlies came to town. However, Osoyoos was more than competitive against one of the KIJHL’s top teams, edged just 4-3 on Saturday night at the Sun Bowl Arena.
Revelstoke led 1-0 after the opening period.
Nicholas Vopat tied the game early in the second, only see to the Grizzlies tally twice in just over three minutes to go ahead 3-1. Spencer Fleck (pictured above) notched his first of two in the last minute of the period, narrowing the deficit to 3-2 and setting the stage for an interesting final 20 minutes.
The Grizzlies regained their two goal advantage in the third, but the Coyotes kept pressing and were eventually rewarded. As netminder Russell Newman sat on the bench in favour of an extra attacker, Fleck buried his second of the night with 2:06 left in regulation time.
Unfortunately, a comeback wasn’t in the cards, resulting in a third straight loss.
Shots were 43-38 for Revelstoke.
Osoyoos has fallen 14 points back of Merritt, who holds down the Bill Ohlhausen Division’s remain playoff spot. At this point, the post-season appears a bit out of reach.
Next weekend features a home-and-home versus the Kelowna Chiefs, Friday night (Jan. 10th) in Rutland and Saturday night (Jan. 11th) at the Sun Bowl. Game Sponsor of the latter is McDonald’s.
