VICTORIA聽 4聽
EVERETT聽 3
Series tied at 1-1聽
Whatever those earplugs are, the Victoria Royals should order more of them and double their muffling power.聽
鈥淲e kept hearing we had not won in a while. We had to eliminate the noise,鈥� Victoria coach Dave Lowry said.
The Royals couldn鈥檛 have picked a more opportune time to win for the first time in nine Western Hockey League games, stretching to the end of the regular season, and including three consecutive losses to the Everett Silvertips.
Vladimir Bobylev banked in a rebound at the side of the net, with less than five minutes remaining in the third period, to give the Royals a 4-3 victory over the Silvertips before 4,196 fans at Xfinity Arena in Everett on Saturday night.
The result knotted the best-of-seven WHL first-round playoff series 1-1 between the Western Conference top-seed Silvertips and eighth-seed Royals.
鈥淲e are living in the moment and playing day-to-day,鈥� Lowry said of his underdog club鈥檚 attitude against the conference champions.
The first period ended 1-1 on power-play goals by Matt Fonteyne of Everett and 50-goal regular-season scorer Matthew Phillips鈥� first goal of the playoffs for Victoria.
The fine Patrick Bajkov, also on the power play, regained the lead for Everett in the first minute of the second period on a two-point night.
Bajkov is from Nanaimo and led Everett in both goals this regular season with 29 and points with 78.
Victoria forward Tyler Soy banked in a shot off Everett goaltender Carter Hart to tie the game 2-2 less than a minute later. That might have been the fortuitous break and quick answer to this game, and maybe the whole series, that Victoria needed.
Soy then scored on the power play at 7:30 to give Victoria its first lead of the series. The Anaheim Ducks prospect鈥檚 second goal was his 14th career playoff goal to surpass the franchise record of 13 held by current Royals player Jack Walker and former Royals firebrand forward Brandon Magee.
Walker assisted on both of Soy鈥檚 goals. Walker had been tied with Magee for a franchise record 29 points for the most in a career and now holds the record outright with 31. Soy鈥檚 two points pulled him into a career tie at 29 points with Magee. Brandson Hein tied the game 3-3 for the hosts in the third period before Victoria recorded the winner through the Russian-import Bobylev.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 get discouraged,鈥� Lowry said of his team鈥檚 answer for every Everett push.
The sneakily effective veteran forward Dante Hannoun had two assists for Victoria.
Both power plays have been lethal in this series, with Everett 4-for-8 and Victoria 4-7.
Flyers prospect Hart, who backstopped sa国际传媒 to the silver medal at the 2017 world juniors, made 26 saves for Everett. Griffen Outhouse blocked 18 shots for Victoria.
The third and fourth games take place on Tuesday and Wednesday in Victoria.
