Kelowna 5
Victoria 4
Tag, you’re it.
The Victoria Royals and Kelowna Rockets continued their game of chase atop the B.C. Division of the Western Hockey League.
The Rockets defeated the Royals 5-4 Monday in the Okanagan before 5,625 fans at Prospera Place to move one point ahead of Victoria with two games in hand.
The Royals (34-20-4) had swept the Rockets (34-17-5) in a two-game set over the weekend at Save-on-Foods Memoral Centre to take the division lead, if only for a brief time.
“It was really physcial and intense with a real playoff-type feel,” said Victoria head coach Dan Price.
That was evident in a body-shivering legal hit deliverd by Victoria defenceman Ralph Jarratt to Vancouver Canucks second-round draft pick Kole Lind of Kelowna, who had to leave the game in the second period after scoring two goals and adding an assist.
There was no report on Lind’s condition after the game.
“That was a great, clean shoulder-to-shoulder hit,” Price said.
Victoria won the eight-game season series against Kelowna 4-3-1.
“These were two really good teams going at each other,” Price said.
And two who might yet meet again in the post-season.
Victoria captain Matthew Phillips scored on a penalty shot and had an assist Monday to extend his points streak to 18 games, with 14 goals and 34 points in that span. That broke the all-time franchise record of 17 games, which Phillips set himself earlier this season.
The water-bug quick Calgary Flames-signed forward also eclipsed the single-season record, with 93 points and counting, in the era the franchise has played in Victoria since 2011-12. Phillips had been tied with Alex Forsberg, the current University of Saskatchewan Huskies forward, who reached 91 points in 71 games in 2015-16. It has taken Phillips only 53 games this season to surpass that.
Tyler Soy of the Royals added a goal. Earlier Monday, the Anaheim Ducks draft pick out of Cloverdale, was named WHL player of the week for his four goals and eight points last week in three games. San Jose Sharks fourth-round draft pick Noah Gregor and Russian-import Andrei Grishakov scored the other Victoria goals.
The Big Three of the Rockets were heard from on Monday with Lind’s three points and Calgary Flames second-rounder Dillon Dube adding a goal and two assists, while Tampa Bay Lightning first-round draft pick and blueliner Cal Foote recorded two assists. Dube and Foote were members of the gold-medallist Canadian team at the 2018 world junior championships in Buffalo, New York.
Kyle Topping of Salt Spring Island, among a trio of Rockets from the Island including fellow-forward Kyle Brennan of Victoria and defenceman Kye Pow of Nanaimo, added two assists.
Victoria led 2-1 midway through the first period before four consecutive Kelowna goals made it 5-2 by 13:52 of the second period.
A Victoria rally fell short.
“They capitalized on a couple of chances and we ran out of time at the end,” Price said.
Victoria goaltender Griffen Outhouse made 30 saves and James Porter and Brodan Salmond combined for 22 saves for Kelowna.
The Royals return to Blanshard Street on Wednesday to meet the Edmonton Oil Kings.
