It has become the new normal for the Victoria Royals.
The Western Hockey League franchise has advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the third consecutive year, where it will meet the Kelowna Rockets for the second straight season, beginning with the first two games Thursday and Saturday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Up until three seasons ago, the Victoria Royals/Chilliwack Bruins franchise had never won a playoff series.
The Royals defeated the Chiefs 6-2 Sunday evening before 3,102 fans in Spokane, Washington, to win their best-of-seven opening-round series 4-2.
The Rockets defeated the Blazers 2-1 on a Tomas Soustal overtime goal in the seventh and deciding game of their opening-round series Monday night in Kelowna.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had some great games with Kelowna and met them [last year] in the playoffs,鈥� said Royals head coach Dave Lowry.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a long, hard-fought series.鈥�
Victoria won the regular-season series 5-2-1 against Kelowna, which isn鈥檛 a surprising statistic since the Royals swept to a franchise-record 50 wins this season and the Scotty Munro Trophy for the WHL regular-season championship.
Meanwhile, Victoria鈥檚 moribund power play, which was only three-for-20 heading into Sunday鈥檚 Game 6 in Spokane, finally awoke as the Royals scored on three of their five chances to finally bury the Chiefs. Special teams were the key all-around as the Royals short-handed unit held Spokane鈥檚 power play zero-for-five.
鈥淲e needed our power play to be the difference maker [Sunday night],鈥� said Lowry.
鈥淲e made some adjustments and took their shot-blockers out of the shooting lanes.鈥�
That was crucial because the Chiefs stole Friday鈥檚 fifth game in Victoria by throwing their bodies at the puck to block numerous shots.
鈥淭he playoffs are all about making adjustments,鈥� said Lowry.
The always-dangerous Tyler Soy led the Royals with two goals and two assists Sunday while Jack Walker added two goals and one assist. The other goals came from rookies Matthew Phillips and defenceman Scott Walford. Alex Forsberg dished for three assists.
鈥淚t was a tough series. Spokane played us hard. But we were able to rally to get wins [Spokane scored first in the final five games of the series],鈥� said Soy.
Keanu Yamamoto and defenceman Jordan Henderson scored for an overmatched Spokane team, that took this about as far as it could. Victoria finished with 17 more wins and 31 more points than the Chiefs in the regular season.
Lowry went back with Griffen Outhouse in net Sunday despite his spotty outing in Game 5 on Friday. The rookie from Likely, sa国际传媒, made 24 saves.
鈥淸Lowry] gave me another chance, and I was able to fight back,鈥� said Outhouse.
Spokane goaltender Lasse Petersen, the difference maker in Friday鈥檚 game with 43 saves, could not conjure up the same crease magic Sunday in a 19-save performance.
The Royals were missing injured captain Joe Hicketts for the fifth consecutive game and forward Vladimir Bobylev after he limped off the ice in the third period Friday. Victoria general manager Cam Hope said both players remain day-to-day.
Jared Dmytriw was inserted into the Soy-Walker line to replace Bobylev and he recorded an assist. Lowry said Dmytriw was chosen to move up because he has the speed to keep up with Soy and Walker.
Meanwhile, despite that the Kelowna-Kamloops series went seven games, it is a short drive between the towns. The Royals, however, necessitated themselves a long extra trip down to eastern Washington for Game 6 of their series by dropping a 4-1 decision to the Western Conference eighth-seed Chiefs on Friday in Victoria.
鈥淚 hope it goes to 12 periods of overtime,鈥� quipped Lowry, before the Kelowna-Kamloops Game 7.
That didn鈥檛 happen, although there were an extra seven minutes Monday before Soustal ended it. But there is still a short turnaround for the Rockets to the Thursday start in Victoria because of the ZZ Top concert scheduled Friday night at the Memorial Centre.
鈥淜elowna is skilled and fast and hard to play against,鈥� said Soy.
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