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Surging Winterhawks too much for Victoria Royals

PORTLAND 4 VICTORIA 2 Somebody just woke up the Portland Winterhawks. Now the rest of the Western Hockey League is cursing whomever handed them the alarm clock.
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Victoria Royals coach Dave Lowry: “You can’t make mistakes against these guys [Winterhawks] or they will make you pay.”

PORTLAND 4  VICTORIA 2

Somebody just woke up the Portland Winterhawks. Now the rest of the Western Hockey League is cursing whomever handed them the alarm clock.

The ’Hawks (12-12-3), coming off an uncharacteristically slumberous start to the season, won their third consecutive game to move to 7-3-1 in their last 11 by beating the Victoria Royals 4-2 Tuesday night before 3,753 fans at Veteran Memorial Coliseum.

The Winterhawks’ two previous wins in the streak were against the CHL-top ranked Kelowna Rockets over the weekend. When Portland forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand and Nic Petan — under NHL contracts, respectively, to the Columbus Blue Jackets and Winnipeg Jets — get going, it usually spells bad news for opponents. Bjorkstrand scored twice and Petan added two sublime assists Tuesday in being named the game’s top-two stars.

“They [Winterhawks] capitalize on their opportunities,” said Victoria head coach Dave Lowry, who saw his club (14-12-2) snap a two-game winning streak.

“We had more than enough chances to win a hockey game tonight. We competed hard. That wasn’t the issue. But you can’t make mistakes against these guys [Winterhawks] or they will make you pay.”

A toll is exactly what Portland extracted from Victoria.

Bjorkstrand extended his points streak to seven games with his 14th goal of the season at 12:44 of the first period on the power play by one-timing a deft saucer pass from Petan. With the Royals down a man again, Victoria forward Brandon Fushimi turned the tables with a shorthanded goal to knot matters 1-1 at 17:23 of the first after being sent in alone by Regan Nagy.

>>> GET MORE VICTORIA ROYALS COVERAGE

Greg Chase, recently acquired in a trade, scored his first goal for the Royals with just six seconds remaining in the opening period. Blake Heinrich pulled the Winterhawks level at 2-2 at 6:54 of the second period. Bjorkstrand, using the decoy on a two-on-one, made it 3-2 in the last minute of the middle period to score his 11th goal in 15 career games against Victoria. That stood as the winner as Dominic Turgeon put it away in the third.

The contest featured two recent call-up goalkeepers — Jayden Sittler of the Royals and Adin Hill of the Winterhawks — who have played well enough to displace respective veteran starters Coleman Vollrath and Brendan Burke. Hill made 36 saves and was third star. Sittler made 32 saves.

Victoria now moves on to Spokane to face the Chiefs (12-7-3) tonight.