PORTLAND 4 VICTORIA 3
The 6,745 faithful filed out of Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Tuesday night with the kind of hollow feeling fans get when they see a winnable game slip away for their team.
In a night of sweeping momentum shifts, the Portland Winterhawks shifted faster and better to leave the Victoria Royals’ season on the brink.
The Winterhawks took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven WHL Western Conference semifinal series by scoring the final two goals in the third period on Victoria defensive lapses for a 4-3 victory.
“They are a skilled team that capitalizes on the small mistakes we make,” said Victoria forward Steven Hodges. “But it doesn’t matter how you get to Game 7 [as long as you get there].”
But there’s a long, twisting path before that. Game 5 is Thursday in Portland. Game 6, if required, is Saturday back in Victoria. A Game 7, if needed would be next Monday in Portland.
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Hodges struck on the odd-man just seven seconds into the third period to give Victoria a 3-2 lead. The Royals, however, gifted that goal right back to Portland as a terrible clearing attempt was punished by Brendan Leipsic at 1:33 to tie matters 3-3. Victoria pressed and almost scored twice but were stymied by goalie Brendan Burke. Then once again poor defensive coverage by Victoria allowed Portland to score as Chase De Leo made it 4-3 at 8:05 for the winner.
“They are a good hockey team that forced us to make mistakes and then they capitalized,” said Victoria defenceman Joe Hicketts.
Royals head coach Dave Lowry concurred.
“It’s a game of mistakes and the team that makes the fewest is going to win,” he said. “Portland plays a pressure game and pressure forces turnovers. But this was one game. Our season now comes down to 60 minutes. We have to find a way to extend this. If we stick to the way we can play, we give ourselves a chance to win. We still believe this can be a long series.”
The scoring opened on a couple of weird bounces. A bank shot off Burke’s shoulder by rookie Tyler Soy put Victoria ahead at 6:39 of the first period. But Portland got a break less than two minutes later when its first goal went in off the skate of Hicketts. It was awarded to Adam Rossignol.
The Winterhawks went ahead 2-1 on a scrambly power-play goal poked in by Nashville third-round draft pick Leipsic at 12:18 of the second period before Victoria equalized 2-2 on a short-handed goal by Taylor Crunk at 17:11.
The victor of this series advances to meet the winner of the other Western Conference semifinal series, led 3-0 by top-seed Kelowna over fourth-seed Seattle.
ICE CHIPS: The large chunk of the season missed to shoulder surgery dearly cost Hicketts, who was left off Central Scouting’s final rankings for the 2014 NHL draft … A trio of Winterhawk forwards were ranked — Chase De Leo 36th among North American skaters, Alex Schoenborn 78th and Keegan Iverson 85th … Victoria native Dysin Mayo a defenceman with the Edmonton Oil Kings, was rated 82nd among North American skaters.
