VANCOUVER聽 5
VICTORIA聽 3
Vancouver leads series 3-2
It might seem like an April Fools鈥� joke. The Victoria Royals only wish it was.
The Royals were specifically built for this time of year. But a sheer bad-luck run of injuries to top-drawer players laid waste to those best-laid plans. So it has come down to grim springtime survival for Victoria鈥檚 Western Hockey League club against a Vancouver Giants team that hasn鈥檛 won a playoff series since 2010.
The depleted Royals must win at the Langley Events Centre on Monday afternoon in Game 6 if they want to get back to Blanshard Street this season.
The Giants took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference quarter-final series with a 5-3 victory before a hopeful but eventually-deflated near-capacity crowd of 6,792 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
If the Royals force a Game 7, it will be Tuesday night at the Memorial Centre.
鈥淲e're at the must-win point now. It鈥檚 OK. We鈥檒l come out strong," said Royals captain Matthew Phillips.
鈥淲e have to find a way.鈥�
Phillips scored for the Royals and assisted on Noah Gregor鈥檚 and Dante Hannoun鈥檚 goals. If those turn out to be the Calgary Flames-signed forward鈥檚 last career points at home, what a wonderfully memorable three-season run it has been. Phillips has been a beauty on Blanshard.
In the last 28 WHL playoff series that have been tied 2-2, the team that won Game 5 has gone on to win the series, and 18 of them in Game 6. The Royals, however, are focused on returning to the Island to play Tuesday, not clear out their lockers.
鈥淲e have to put this one behind us. Our focus is on the next game and playing the way we know we can play,鈥� said the Royals鈥� L.A. Kings-signed blueliner Chaz Reddekopp.
Victoria head coach Dan Price said: 鈥淚t's all about the response [Monday]. The puck found its way into the net for them tonight. We had as many chances but the puck did not find its way in the net.鈥�
If Victoria鈥檚 injury woes weren鈥檛 enough, veteran defenceman Ralph Jarratt left Saturday in the first period after a slashing penalty by Vancouver's Matt Barberis, the latest in a series of Royals players out of the series after hits and takedowns.
鈥淚t was a vicious slash,鈥� said Price, of Barberis鈥� penalty.
Jarratt joined Victoria's two top centres, Soy and St. Louis Blues-signed Tanner Kaspick, and third-round Montreal Canadiens draft pick blueliner Scott Walford on the shelf. Also out is forward Dino Kambeitz.
Victoria, riding a 4-0 power-play edge in the first period, did everything but score. But it was the Giants who took a 1-0 led into the first break on a partially fanned shot by Davis Koch that somehow found the lower corner. The Giants put it away early in the second period on two goals by rising defenceman Bowen Byram, the Western Conference rookie of the year, and former Royals forward Jared Dmytriw. The Royals have had no answer for Vancouver鈥檚 method of getting bodies in position to screen goaltender Griffen Outhouse.
Neither does the Royals power play seem effective without the sniper Soy.
The power play scored three times, with Soy recording twice, in the lone game he was able to play in the series. The Royals have only three other power-play goals to show for their glaring 27-14 edge in odd-man advantages in the series.
Look no farther than that for the stat of the series.
