KELOWNA ROCKETS 4
VICTORIA ROYALS 1
Rockets lead series 3-2
The holders have pushed the upstarts to the brink.
The way it happened stunned the capacity crowd of 7,006 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. Victoria defenceman and captain Joe Hicketts, the face of the franchise, got picked clean at 9:33 of the third period by Tyson Baillie for the winning goal as the Kelowna Rockets defeated the Victoria Royals 4-1 in Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series.
鈥淚 take full responsibility,鈥� said Hicketts, following the game.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to wear that one. I don鈥檛 know if a lace fell off or something. I鈥檝e got to put this behind me.鈥�
The Rockets are the defending WHL champions and the Royals this season鈥檚 regular-season champions.
Baillie鈥檚 edgy game winner was followed at 10:41 of the third period by a Justin Kirkland power-play goal, which only went to highlight that Victoria went 0-5 on its own odd-man chances.
Another Hicketts turnover accounted for a goal into the empty net by Rourke Chartier.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not pushing panic buttons,鈥� said Hicketts, the Western Conference MVP and two-time Canadian player at the world junior championship. 鈥淲e have full confidence on this team.鈥�
The sixth game is Sunday in Kelowna. A seventh game, if required, will be Tuesday night back on Blanshard. The winner will meet the winner of the Seattle Thunderbirds-Everett Silvertips semifinal, led 3-1 by Seattle, in the Western Conference final.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got to play to win one game,鈥� said Hicketts, of the immediate task at hand Sunday.
A dominant Victoria first period ended with the Royals holding a 10-2 shots advantage but the game scoreless.
鈥淲e created chances but were not getting the bounces,鈥� said Hicketts.
Jack Walker then hit the crossbar on a breakaway in the second period. The was followed by Dillon Dube of the Rockets ringing a shot off the post as Kelowna began coming on. Not only did Kelowna pull even on shots at 12-12, but Chartier took a Tomas Soustal assist to make it 1-0 at 12:02 of the second. The Royals then re-upped their game and pushed their shots advantage to 21-14 and pulled level through a wrap-around assist by Regan Nagy and an opportunistic goal, his fifth of the season, by Western Conference top-rookie Matthew Phillips at 16:31.
But those earlier missed Royals chances came back to haunt.
鈥淲e had opportunities to win the game but didn鈥檛 capitalize on our chances,鈥� said Victoria coach Dave Lowry. 鈥淭he score was not indicative of how the [flow of the] game went.鈥�
About the Hicketts turnover on the winning goal, Lowry said: 鈥淭hose are the breaks. We had all kinds of opportunities to go ahead and we didn鈥檛. [The Rockets] capitalized on their chances.鈥�
About the struggling power play, Lowry added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e not hitting our looks.鈥�
Michael Herringer was strong in goal for Kelowna with 28 saves.
Veteran Victoria netminder Coleman Vollrath made 21 saves.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got to win the next game,鈥� said Lowry, when asked about his team鈥檚 mindset.
