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Goaltending sparkles for Victoria Royals in shootout win

VICTORIA 1 EVERETT 0 (SO) When it comes to goaltending, it’s been a wealth of riches for Victoria Royals’ head coach Dave Lowry. When he’s not throwing out the Western Hockey League’s No.
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VictoriaÕs Jack Walker scores during the shootout against Everett Silvertips goaltender Austin Lotz at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre Wednesday.

VICTORIA 1  EVERETT 0 (SO)

When it comes to goaltending, it’s been a wealth of riches for Victoria Royals’ head coach Dave Lowry.

When he’s not throwing out the Western Hockey League’s No. 1 puckstopper in goals against average and save percentage in Coleman Vollrath, Lowry has the benefit of tossing out Patrik Polivka.

The latter is the WHL co-leader in shutouts, collecting his fifth of the season in a rare 1-0 shootout victory on Wednesday afternoon before 5,693 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre — the franchise’s first-ever scoreless game through regulation and overtime.

Polivka is tied with Everett’s Austin Lotz, who also recorded the shutout before losing in the shootout when Jack Walker had the only goal as Victoria’s second of three shooters.

“That’s been the strength of our team. Our goaltending has been really good,” admitted Lowry. “Both guys have been solid and both guys have been pushing each other and that’s made them both better.”

Polivka more than held the fort against Lotz. The Royals’ goalie wasn’t overly busy, making 24 saves, 16 of them in the first two periods. Offensively, Victoria had just nine shots in the opening 40 minutes, only three in the second stanza before peppering Lotz with 17 in the third.

“I didn’t expect that before the season. I’m happy,” Polivka said of his five shutouts, which ties a franchise record with Lucas Gore, who managed the mark twice in 2009-10 and 2010-11. “We’re both playing good this season, me and Coleman, and it’s been very good for the team.”

A team that has now won six straight games (one off a franchise record established last January) and has points in the last eight outings to improve to 27-13-0-2 for 56 points, two points up on the Portland Winterhawks, who they will play three straight times after facing Spokane on Friday.

The Winterhawks do have four games in hand on Victoria, which remains third overall in the Western Conference because of the divisional breakdown. Kelowna remains first with 64 points, ahead of Portland in second.

“The points are a big deal here. We’ve been trying to catch these guys for a while, we finally caught them,” Walker said after the win.

Walker finally beat Lotz after brother Ben Walker (who scored Tuesday’s game winner) lost control of the puck on the Royals’ first shootout attempt and before Steven Hodges — who had two great chances in overtime — was stopped with what is described as Peter Forsberg’s patented one-handed backhand deke.

The victory swept a home-and-home series in which the two teams played the night previous (a 3-2 Victoria win) in Everett before jumping on buses and grabbing a ferry in the morning. The four points opened up some separation on the Silvertips, who remain fourth in the West.

“Realistically, we want to win all our games,” said Lowry. “A month ago we didn’t think this was a position that was possible. You win some games and you’re able to close some ground. Our focus is not where we are in the standings.

“We just want to prepare every day. We want to make sure we give ourselves an opportunity to win every day and, if we can do that, we’re going to like where we end up.”

They won without Brandon Magee, who came out of Tuesday’s win in Everett and is listed as day-to-day with what is being called a lower-body injury. Victoria also lost Axel Blomqvist on Wednesday when he took a puck off the face and lost some teeth, which also happened to Magee in the last Royals’ home game.

That’s a lot of teeth in one week.

Victoria also remains without Logan Nelson (also day-to-day) and Joe Hicketts, who is out long-term.

mannicchiarico@timescolonist.com

Twitter/tc_vicsports