Grizzlies open road trip with win

While Australian personalities Nicole Kidman and her country music star husband Keith Urban garnered all the attention in the stands between periods at the Wesbild Centre in Vernon on Friday, it was much lesser known Garrett Rockafellow who stole the show on the ice.

Fitting for Rockafellow, a country music fan from Crossfield, Alta., who left the home side Vernon Vipers singing a hurtin song.

Yeah, I heard they were in the building so I poked my head out at the end of the game, but they were already gone, said Rockafellow, the Victoria Grizzlies netminder who turned in a second straight solid effort. This time it was a 4-3 victory over the three-time defending B.C. Hockey League champion Vipers.

Rockafellow, coming off a 33-save performance in a 2-1 loss to Alberni Valley last weekend, made 30 stops to earn first-star honours, including 15 in the opening 20 minutes.

He was outstanding, said Grizzlies assistant coach Victor Gervais. He kept us in the game in the first period.

Mike Moran scored his fifth game-winning goal of the year at 15:11 of the third period. It was just the third 5-on-5 goal of the evening as the clubs took advantage of special teams to record the first four goals.

Vernons Michael Zalewski had a goal and two assists for the Vipers, who had Kidman and Urban as surprise guests as they were busy signing autographs and posing for pictures on a visit with the Australian ski team.

Darren Nowick and Aaron Hadley had the other goals for Vernon, which led 2-1 after one.

Jarryd Ten Vaanholt and Wesley Myron (on a 5-on-3) had power-play markers for Victoria. Call-up Dayne Ellison had the other goal for the Grizzlies, who improve to 18-19 and are in Trail tonight at 7:30.