VICTORIA 3
KELOWNA 2
(Victoria leads series 2-0)
The Victoria Royals have the defending WHL champions back-pedalling home over the Coquihalla.
The Royals defeated the Rockets 3-2 before a capacity crowd of 7,006 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven second-round playoff series.
Further adding to Kelowna鈥檚 distress, an apparent 3-3 tying goal by Tyson Baillie, with 2:53 left in the third period, was ruled to have been kicked into the net. Victoria goaltender Coleman Vollrath then made a couple of game-saving stops in the waning seconds, the best off Baillie.
It was a borderline call on the Baillie non-goal, but it鈥檚 amazing how often those seem to go to the teams that seems destined.
Victoria won the first game 2-1. The third and fourth games are Tuesday and Thursday in the Okanagan.
The Rockets beat Victoria in five games last year in the second round en route to the WHL title and Memorial Cup national championship game.
But the Royals were this year鈥檚 WHL regular-season champions and the wind looks to be at their backs, if by the narrowest of funnels Saturday.
Jack Walker opened scoring on the power play with a goal that was as sly as it was cheeky. He added another power-play goal in the third period.
It pushed the Victoria forward鈥檚 total to a WHL-leading eight goals in the playoffs and extended his points streak to five games. The native of Edina, Minnesota, has six goals and nine points in that stretch.
鈥淚f you had told me that before the playoffs [that he would have the most goals], I wouldn鈥檛 have believed you,鈥� said the largely unsung forward.
鈥淏ut we use our speed and play our game.鈥�
Victoria coach Dave Lowry is a believer, pointing out that Walker was Victoria鈥檚 best player in last year鈥檚 playoff loss to the Rockets.
鈥淛ack has grown as a player and matured as a person and that is evident in his game,鈥� said Lowry.
Kelowna鈥檚 moribund power play, only two-for-30 in the playoffs coming into the game, finally found a spark when Baillie levelled for the Rockets at 6:02 of the second period.
An acute-angle shot from the left boards by Regan Nagy, for his first goal of the playoffs to make it 2-1 at 16:56 of the second, seemed to catch Kelowna goaltender Michael Herringer by surprise. The Royals unofficial motto is 鈥渁lways be attacking鈥� and it sometimes pays off in the most unexpected of ways.
Justin Kirkland pulled Kelowna to 3-2 after Walker鈥檚 second power-play goal of the night had given Victoria a two-goal advantage.
On the Victoria injury front, captain Joe Hicketts missed his seventh consecutive game and forward Vladimir Bobylev his third after starting the playoffs with seven assists in five games. But the Royals very much have a next-up philosophy and it鈥檚 carried them this far.
ICE CHIPS: Taking a page from the Star Spangled handbook of the late Seattle legend Jimi Hendrix, bluesman Jesse Roper of Metchosin delivered a memorable electric-guitar rendition of O sa国际传媒 to start the game.
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The Victoria Royals are headed to the Okanagan with a 2-0 lead in their Western Hockey League second-round playoff series against the Kelowna Rockets.
