There is a movie adage from Westerns, that in a gunfight, there is only the quick and the dead.
The Victoria Royals were the former in the third period and Medicine Hat Tigers the latter Tuesday night. But this was only a hockey game, so no worries. The Tigers will live to fight again.
Two of the WHL鈥檚 smallest, but fastest, teams met before an announced crowd of 3,169 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre with the Royals (18-8-2) continuing their best start in franchise history with two unanswered third-period goals in a 3-1 victory over the rebuilding Tigers (7-14-3).
鈥淔or 40 minutes, we didn鈥檛 skate and stood around and watched. And when we鈥檙e not skating, we鈥檙e not an effective team. But we began skating and attacking and moving the puck in the third period,鈥� said Royals coach Dave Lowry.
Matthew Phillips, generously listed as five-foot-seven and 160 pounds, scored his rookie league-leading 15th goal of the season at 1:12 of the third to make it 2-1. Moments later, five-foot-six Dante Hannoun was robbed by the glove of Tigers goalkeeper Nick Schneider. Then the Royals blue-liners took over with Chaz Reddekopp converting a Joe Hicketts pass to the top corner on the power play at 6:12.
鈥淲e got off to a slow start but then we bounced back well,鈥� said Reddekopp, who just missed scoring his second goal into an empty net.
鈥淭he Tigers have a lot of smaller guys but it doesn鈥檛 hurt them too much because they have skill,鈥� added Reddekopp, about how the Hat kept it close.
Victoria built a 1-0 first-period lead on a flashy move by Jack Walker, and an 11-1 shots advantage, only to see the slow-burning Tigers fight their way back into the contest. Medicine Hat captain Cole Sanford, the five-foot-eight dynamo who scored 50 goals last season, tied it 1-1 on the power play at 5:48 of the second period. Heading into the second break, the Tigers had closed the shots gap to 23-21and only the goaltending of Coleman Vollrath prevented the visitors from taking the lead.
Vollrath finished with 29 saves and Schneider 35.
The Royals play another non-conference game at the Memorial Centre, against Kootenay Ice, on Saturday night.
ICE CHIPS: Bob Ridley used to swing onto Blanshard Street back when former Medicine Hat stars such as Tom Lysiak, Lanny McDonald, Stan Weir, Don Murdoch, Trevor Linden played former Victoria Cougars such as Mel Bridgman, Curt Fraser, Gary Lupul, Barry Pederson and Grant Fuhr at the old Memorial Arena. Ridley, the only radio play-by-play announcer in the 46-year history of the Tigers, is still at it and was describing the action Tuesday in the Memorial Centre press box in his usual indomitable fashion. Ridley only stopped driving the Tigers team bus a few years ago.
