From rapture to rupture in 0.2 seconds.
“It was like one arrow through 7,000 hearts all at once,” said Victoria Royals GM Cam Hope.
It was little consolation Wednesday to the Royals that they were part of a Western Hockey League playoff series against the Kelowna Rockets that is being rated an instant classic. Or that, in a surprising season, they brought a bit of a smile to a city otherwise starting to look a little tawdry around the edges.
On locker clean-out day at the Memorial Centre, the description-defying Game 7 Western Conference loss to the Rockets the night before in the jammed rink was still too fresh a wound. It will take a while yet to heal. It isn’t often you have practically one skate blade already in the next round, only to have it yanked back with such suddenness.
“It hasn’t sunk in that it’s over,” said Royals goaltender Coleman Vollrath, who was beaten for the tying goal by Justin Kirkland with just 0.2 seconds remaining in regulation time, and then in overtime for the winning goal by Swiss-import Calvin Thurkauf, as the Rockets rallied from trailing 2-0 heading into the third period.
“I didn’t sleep a wink afterwards. I watched the sunrise over Victoria,” added Vollrath.
The immediate aftermath was even harder to take.
“It was very emotional after the game and a lot of us were crying,” said Vollrath.
Victoria defenceman Joe Hicketts said he can’t bear to bring himself to watch the highlights of Game 7.
“Maybe I’ll watch next week,” he said.
By then, the Rockets and Seattle Thunderbirds well be well into a Western Conference final to which the regular-season champion Royals thought they were headed.
“It’s still unbelievable to me,” said Hicketts.
“We worked so hard all season to put ourselves in position to advance to the third round [for the first time in franchise history].”
“But that’s hockey. The puck bounces that way sometimes.”
The pain extended to the bench.
“This was a great year for us moving the franchise forward. But this [Game 7 loss] will never go away,” said head coach Dave Lowry.
“Our guys are disappointed we couldn’t continue this. We want to make this a hockey town. We will use this experience moving forward. Kelowna had 14 guys who went to the Memorial Cup last year and they drew on that experience [Tuesday] night when they were down 2-0 with 20 minutes remaining. We have a young group. We’ll be a better team moving forward because of this Game 7 experience.”
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