This is what hockey in March is all about.
The eighth-seed Victoria Royals recorded an edgy 2-1 victory to tie their best-of-seven opening-round WHL playoff series 2-2 against the Western Conference top-seed Everett Silvertips before 4,637 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
“It was an intense, hard-fought game,” said Victoria forward Matthew Phillips, whose assist set up Dante Hannoun for the winning goal in the second period.
The fifth game is Friday night at Xfinity Arena in Everett. The sixth game will be a Sunday matinée at 2 p.m. at the Memorial Centre.
“This is exactly what we expected it to be: Hard, physical games between two determined opponents,” said Royals coach Dave Lowry.
Griffen Outhouse made 30 saves in goal for Victoria. And you know what they say about goaltending and playoffs.
“The guys put their bodies on the line,” said Outhouse.
“Everyone bought in and was blocking shots.”
The level of crease play in this series is extremely high, with Everett boasting Philadelphia Flyers prospect Carter Hart, who led the WHL in goals-against average and save percentage over the regular season.
“We need [Outhouse] to be good,” said Lowry.
“He is going head-to-head with one of the two goalies for Canada at the world junior championship. So Griffen has to match up with [Hart] to give us a chance.”
Which Outhouse more than did on Wednesday night when given a two-goal lead with which to work.
Regan Nagy volleyed a low air-born puck past a startled Hart to give Victoria the lead at 5:03 of the first period. Some diligent work behind the net by linemates Phillips and Jared Dmytriw got the puck out front to a lurking Hannoun to give Victoria a two-goal advantage at 19:16 of the second period.
“Goals in the last minute of periods are critical and this one gave us the boost we needed,” said Lowry.
The importance of that Victoria lead can’t be stressed enough because it forced Everett out of its lockdown style, which works brilliantly if the Silvertips play with the lead, but also leaves the ’Tips not greatly equipped themselves to rally.
But try they did. The Silvertips had a goal by Connor Dewar disallowed in the third period because of incidental contact on Outhouse. Then a four-minute double-minor penalty to Victoria forward Vladimir Bobylev turned the final five minutes into a taut mini-drama.
Nanaimo-product Patrick Bajkov took advantage of the power-play opportunity to score his fourth goal of the series at 16:05 but Outhouse and the Royals penalty kill slammed the door shut after that.
The Royals were again missing top-three forward Jack Walker and top-three defenceman Scott Walford, both unable to dress for a second consecutive game because of injuries.
