The Langley Rivermen three game road trip took them to Vancouver Island this weekend for a matchup on Friday in Duncan against the Cowichan Valley Capitals, and Saturday a visit to the Q Centre to take on the Victoria Grizzlies.
Langley went to the penalty kill with 5 minutes gone in the first period, but Ryan Schelling would make a great play shorthanded and beat Capitals goaltender Liam Sztuska making it 1-0 Rivermen with 6:12 gone in the opening period.
1:12 later Cowichan would tie it up on a redirection in tight on the Rivermen net, and then would give themselves a lead 57 seconds later on a rebound in front.
Greye Rampton tied it up again for Langley three minutes after the Capitals 2-1 goal.
However, the Capitals would give themselves a lead heading into the first period, as Kole Keen would fire home a shot from the slot making it 3-2 for the hosts with 3:20 remaining in the first period.
Cowichan scored from a tight angle 1:55 into the second period on a fluky play to lead 4-2.
Rivermen forward Henry Butte dropped the gloves with Cowichan’s Darius Bachler 9 minutes into the second period, and that seemed to spark Langley.
At 10:16 of the second period Liam Doyle stepped into a slap shot from the right point beating Sztuska to cut the Capitals lead to 4-3.
Four minutes later Davids Livsics would one time a pass from Schelling into the Cowichan net for his first goal as a Rivermen making it 4-4 with 5 minutes remaining in the second period.
Former Rivermen Camden Bazjer scored 7:41 into the third period which ended up being the game winner.
Langley pushed the play in the final 12 minutes, and even hit a post in the last 30 seconds, but Cowichan would hang on to take the first meeting of the season between the two squads 5-4.
The Rivermen started out on the front foot on Saturday in Victoria, and had a couple golden opportunities in the first 5 minutes of the game, but Grizzlies third year goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton kept his team in it with a pair of great saves.
Victoria grabbed the first goal of the game with 6:38 gone in the first period on an odd man rush and Tobias Pitka fired home his 10th of the season.
The Grizzlies hit two posts, and had a disallowed goal in the final few minutes of the first, and Langley killed off a power play for the home team to send Victoria into the first intermission ahead 1-0.
Langley came out firing in the second period and got themselves a lead 4:36 into the middle frame on a power play goal. Davids Livsics received a pass from Dalton MacGillivray, and fed Jackson Potulny in front of the Grizzlies net to make it 1-1. It was a back and forth remaining 15 minutes of the period, but it would remain 1-1 going into the final frame.
55 seconds into the third period, Ryan Schelling would take a feed from MacGillivray and rip it top corner for his 24th goal of the season to make it 2-1 Rivermen.
Langley would face an onslaught of Grizzlies pressure in the third period, but would concede the equalizer with 49 seconds to go in the game sending it to overtime.
MacGillivray would grab his 11th goal of the season, and third point of the night to win the game for Langley 1:50 into overtime on a great feed from Sid McNeill, a 3-2 final ending the Rivermen’s three game road trip on a high note.
Langley are back in action next Saturday, February 1st against the Chilliwack Chiefs at the George Preston Arena for a 7:15 puck drop.
