Home-ice advantage goes to the Victoria Grizzlies. The Grizzlies defeated the Nanaimo Clippers 5-3 on Saturday night at Bear Mountain Arena, to claim fourth place in the B.C. Hockey League Coastal Conference.

The Grizzlies will play host to the fifth-place Clippers on Friday and Saturday, in the first two games of the best-of-seven playoff series, which could be a cross between Xtreme Ice Wars and Survivor.

“I think both teams wanted to intimidate each other,” said Wesley Myron, the first star in the physical, almost nasty game. “We have team toughness, and that’s all that matters.”

Starting out like gangbusters, Nanaimo created some early chances, but the Grizzlies won the race to the scoreboard.

Victoria forward Kyle St. Denis flicked the puck into an open net at 2:47, after Clippers goaltender Charles-Andre Pelletier got caught out of position. It was the 12th goal in 13 games for St. Denis.

The Clippers, seeing the danger lights flashing on No. 9, surrounded him like a sandwich wrap, but St. Denis made a great pass to Mitch Labreche for Victoria’s second goal at 10:08.

Then, it was Nanaimo’s turn. The 17-year-old Fitzgerald triplets (Myles scored) teamed up to slip one by Matt Gin at 13:54, and Brett Hartskamp connected on the power play at 17:32. The Bear Mountain fans were worried, but not for long.

Eleven seconds later, Joel Lowry picked up his 24th goal of the season, and Madison Dias regained the two-goal lead for the Grizzlies, just before the first break.

The second period was when the Clippers went for broke, obviously trying to throw bumps and bruises in front of the fleet Grizzlies. Ginn made a terrific glove save on a Gerry Fitzgerald shot, and didn’t appear to be fazed when he was run down by Nanaimo’s Danick Malouin.

“They started running around, and we stuck to our game plan,” Myron said. “We can take the whacks on the legs.”

The worst moment for Victoria came when Kyle Kramer slammed into Dias. As the Victoria forward lay writhing in pain, Myron put the Grizzlies up 5-2. Dias had to be helped off the ice, and Kramer was thrown out for kneeing.

Myles Fitzgerald scored again in the third, but the Grizzlies did a good job of damage control.

“[The win] was huge. You want to end the season on a high note, and just roll into playoffs,” Myron said. “We have the right chemistry in this room to go a long way. It’s going to be a fun journey.”

Bear tracks: Games 3 and 4 of the series are set for Feb. 28 and March 1 in Nanaimo.