KELOWNA 6
VICTORIA 4
There was no need for a death-defying, millisecond-remaining goal this time.
Far from it, as the Kelowna Rockets recorded a comfortable 6-4 Western Hockey League victory over the Victoria Royals at Prospera Place in the Okanagan.
It really wasn鈥檛 that close as Victoria trailed 6-2 before scoring twice in garbage time late in the third period.
It was the first meeting between the clubs since Kelowna scored with less than one second remaining in regulation time, and then again in overtime, to stun the league regular-season champion Royals in Game 7 of their second-round playoff series last spring.
Victoria fell to 8-7 with Wednesday鈥檚 loss while Kelowna won its fourth consecutive game to move to 7-7.
Michael Herringer of Comox, named WHL goaltender of the week by recording a 1.99 goals-against average and .924 save percentage in his previous three games, made 25 saves in the Kelowna crease.
Griffen Outhouse, coming off a first-star performance in Tuesday鈥檚 2-1 victory in Kamloops, made 18 saves for Victoria over two periods before being replaced for the final period by backup Dylan Myskiw.
鈥淭o be a starting goaltender in this league, you have to play back-to-back nights,鈥� said Royals coach Dave Lowry.
鈥淏ut we鈥檙e not throwing this one on our goaltenders. We lost this game as a group.鈥�
Victoria鈥檚 penalty kill, ranked second in the league heading into the contest, was rocked by three Kelowna power-play goals in the second period. Two were scored by Rodney Southam and the other by Tomas Soustal as the Rockets built a 5-2 lead in the middle period.
Lowry labelled as questionable the interference penalty to Matthew Phillips that led to the first Kelowna power-play goal by Southam that made it 2-1.
鈥淭hat was unfortunate because it was a good game, and both teams were competing hard, and that call changed the momentum,鈥� said the Victoria bench boss.
About the three overall Rockets power-play goals against his previously stingy penalty kill, Lowry said: 鈥淸Rockets] capitalized on chances and we made a couple of mistakes.鈥�
The Royals responded with two power-play goals of their own and have 14 in the last six games. Matthew Phillips put home a laser pass from Tyler Soy for the first Victoria odd-man goal and Dante Hannoun scored the other in the third period.
Ryan Peckford opened scoring early in the first period to give Victoria a jump it couldn鈥檛 build on. Jared Dmytriw scored the other Royals goal. Calvin Thurkauf, the latter who scored the overtime winner against Victoria in Game 7 last spring, scored twice for Kelowna.
Victoria concludes its four-game road swing Friday against the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick, Washington, and Saturday against the Silvertips in Everett.
ICE CHIPS: The Royals were without rookie forward Eric Florchuk, who is at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
