VICTORIA 4 KELOWNA 3 (OT)
Are the Canadian Hockey League top-10 poll ballots counted yet?
The Victoria Royals knocked off what is probably the best junior team in the country on Axel Blomqvist’s goal at 3:16 of overtime which gave Victoria a 4-3 WHL victory Tuesday night over the Kelowna Rockets before 3,485 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The lanky Winnipeg Jets-signed Swede knocked in a pass sent his way from defenceman Travis Brown, as Victoria capped a rally from a 3-1 deficit.
“Travis put it right on my tape and I was staring at an empty net,” said Blomqvist, of the OT winner.
“We worked hard in this game and stuck to the system.”
The Rockets (20-1-2) are the No. 2 ranked team in CHL — and likely to be No. 1 when this week’s national top-10 poll is released today — thanks to the dasher board that caused Connor McDavid’s hand injury that will likely knock the Erie Otters of the OHL from the top spot.
Kelowna was looking to seal the deal Tuesday when Brandon Magee tied matters 3-3 with 1:57 remaining in regulation time when he broke to the net and the puck was knocked in off the skates of Kelowna defenceman Joe Gatenby.
“I was just trying to get the puck toward the net,” said Magee. “I was proud of our group today.”
So was Victoria head coach Dave Lowry.
“I knew [going in] we had to play the best game of the year . . . and a smart game,” he said.
“I thought we played hard and played intelligently.”
And under a new captain.
The Royals will rotate the captaincy this season. It was defenceman Joe Hicketts’ role up to Tuesday, but it was Magee who wore the ‘C’ against the Rockets.
“Joe and I work well together as a [leadership tandem],” said Magee.
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The Royals (12-10-2) came out spirited, outshooting Kelowna 11-1. But it was the Rockets’ who struck first, through their WHL-best power play, with Kris Schmidi snapping the puck home at 13:39 of the first period. Tyson Baillie, with his league-leading 16th goal, extended that to a two-goal advantage at 14:48. Jack Walker pulled one back for Victoria at 17:43 on the power play.
Magee was stopped on a breakaway by Kelowna goaltender Jackson Whistle early in the second period. On the ensuing rush, Baillie scored his 17th of the season on a soft shot at 1:39 as the Kelowna power play, slamming at a near 33 per cent clip, struck again to make it 3-1.
But the stubborn Royals again pulled to within one, thanks to their league fifth-ranked power play, as Austin Carroll slid in his WHL-best ninth man-advantage goal of the season at 6:04 of the second period.
The Royals were kept on their heels in the third period by two borderline penalty calls against Hicketts and Brown. Victoria rookie Regan Nagy almost tied it, however, his third-period short-handed breakaway was stopped by Whistle, who had 28 saves.
Coleman Vollrath made 28 saves for Victoria.
The clubs conclude their two-game set tonight at the Memorial Centre.
ICE CHIPS: The Royals dealt 17-year-old rookie forward Matthew Campese and a fifth-round 2016 bantam draft pick to the Kamloops Blazers on Tuesday in return for a third-round bantam pick in the 2015 bantam draft. Campese, a native of Prince Albert, had two goals in 14 games this season.
