VICTORIA 4
EVERETT 3 (SO)
Stamp it and record it for posterity.
The 2014-15 Western Hockey League regular season is in the books for the Victoria Royals at 39-29-4, the second best in the nine years of Royals/Chilliwack Bruins franchise history following last season’s breakout 48 wins.
The Royals dropped the curtain on the campaign with a 4-3 shootout victory Saturday night over the Silvertips before 7,918 fans at Comcast Arena in Everett, Washington.
“There was lots of emotion in the game and that’s exactly what we wanted,” said Royals bench-boss Dave Lowry, who is expected to be named on Monday as head coach of Canada for the 2016 world junior championships in Helsinki.
Next up for the B.C. Division second-seed Royals is a best-of-seven opening round playoff series beginning next Friday and Saturday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre against late-surging divisional third-seed Prince George (31-36-5).
The Cougars lost 5-2 Saturday to Kamloops, but are still 7-2-1 in their last 10 games.
“These are two evenly matched teams and it’s going to be a heavy, hard series,” Lowry said.
The Silvertips (42-20-9), meanwhile, go into the post-season as the top seed in the U.S. Division.
They are ranked No. 9 in the CHL top-10 and are smartly managed by Garry Davidson, the former BCHL Victoria Salsa (now Grizzlies) and Nanaimo Clippers head coach and GM.
Brandon Magee’s winner in the fourth round of the shootout clinched the game for Victoria on Saturday
Jack Walker also scored for the Royals in the shootout and Ivan Nikolishin for the Tips.
It was a bittersweet night for the 20-year-old Magee.
He didn’t pick up an assist and will finish one shy of Kevin Sundher’s career Chilliwack/Victoria franchise record 151.
There was some drama with the score tied 3-3 and less than three minutes remaining in regulation time when Victoria goaltender Justin Paulic stopped Kohl Baumi of the Silvertips on a penalty shot.
Everett skated to a 4-3 victory over Victoria on Friday night on Blanshard Street in what is becoming a tradition — the third consecutive season the Royals have closed out with a home-and-away set against the Silvertips.
Taylor Crunk had a three-point night for Victoria on Saturday with two goals and an assist.
Detroit Red Wings blueline prospect Joe Hicketts also scored for the Royals.
Paulic made 23 saves and three in the shootout.
Coleman Vollrath was in the Victoria nets the night before in the 4-3 loss to Everett on Blanshard and had his shutout streak ended at 152 minutes and 10 seconds.
That broke Patrik Polivka’s Royals record of 139:04 from last season but fell just 1:46 shy of the franchise record 153:56 set by Matt Esposito in 2006-07 when the club was located in Chilliwack.
