COLWOOD — The Clippers earned their first shutout of the season and won their fifth straight game with a 5-0 road victory over the Victoria Grizzlies on Friday, Feb. 7.
Chazz Nixon stood tall in the Clippers’ crease with a 42 save performance at Q Centre in Colwood.
He recorded his second career shutout and picked up his 12th victory of the season.
Nixon has allowed two goals and made 93 saves in his last two starts.
After a scoreless first period Nanaimo broke the game open in the second.
Tanner Bruender scored 53 seconds in and a few minutes later Carson Lesiuk banked a puck in from the left side on a fortunate bounce.
Just over a minute after that Callas Pierce finished off a perfect feed from Makaio Van Tassel to give the Clippers a commanding lead.
Patrick Fortune scored a dazzling breakaway goal in the final period and Van Tassel capped the scoring with an empty net goal.
Fortune, Lesiuk and Van Tassel each finished with one goal and one assist.
Victoria outshot Nanaimo 42-40 on the night with the Clippers going 0/2 on the power play and 1/1 killing penalties.
The shutout for Nixon was the second of his BCHL career and his 12th victory of the season.
Nixon has allowed two goals and made 93 saves in his last two starts.
The Clippers have won two straight games over the Grizzlies, However Nanaimo still still trails the season series 3-2 with two head-to-head games remaining.
Nanaimo is now tied for 7th in the Coastal Division with Langley at 40 points.
The Clippers next opponent is a pivotal matchup versus the Rivermen on Saturday, Feb. 8 at Frank Crane Arena at 7 p.m.
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