VICTORIA 3
PORTLAND 1
The Victoria Royals established a new franchise record for consecutive victories on Saturday night, claiming their eighth straight Western Hockey League win in a 3-1 result over the Portland Winterhawks at the Moda Center.
A three-goal outburst in the third period was the difference as Victoria now has points in 11 straight outings.
“The guys believe in each other and now they’re being rewarded for their efforts,” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry, whose team played a patient game.
“We didn’t generate enough in the first two periods. In the third period, we got more shots through.”
Portland’s Cody Glass opened the scoring at 8:49 of the first period and the score remained that way through almost 46 minutes of play, although Royals defencemen Ralph Jarratt and Joe Hicketts rung pucks off a goalpost and crossbar, respectively, in that first 20 minutes.
Royals’ veteran Alex Forsberg, playing in his 250th WHL game, finally deflected a puck by Winterhawks netminder Adin Hill at 5:43 of the third period as Victoria outshot the hosts 7-0 over that opening stretch of the final frame.
Ryan Peckford then made it 2-1 just 2:26 later as Royals captain Joe Hicketts collected his second assist of the night. Vladimir Bobylev gave the visitors some more insurance at 13:16, his third goal in two nights.
Griffen Outhouse made 27 stops in goal for Victoria while Hill faced a whopping 40 shots, 18 of them in the final period.
The Royals will attempt to keep this impressive run going on holiday Monday afternoon as the Everett Silvertips pay Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre a visit at 2 p.m. before local product Dysin Mayo and the Edmonton Oil Kings play in Victoria on Tuesday night at 7.
Those will be the team’s third and fourth games in five nights.
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