Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Victoria Royals live to play another day with overtime win

VICTORIA 5, KELOWNA 4 (OT) (Rockets lead series 3-1) Feisty. Plucky. Pick your adjective, but the Victoria Royals aren’t going down without a fight.
B1-0416-rockets-CLR.jpg
Rockets forward Tyson Baillie heads up ice with Royals defenceman Joe Hicketts in pursuit during the first period of Game 4 on Wednesday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

VICTORIA 5, KELOWNA 4 (OT)
(Rockets lead series 3-1)


Feisty. Plucky. Pick your adjective, but the Victoria Royals aren’t going down without a fight.

The Royals extended their best-of-seven second-round Western Hockey League playoffs series to a fifth game Friday night in Kelowna.

Greg Chase scored his seventh goal of the playoffs at 5:30 of overtime to give the Royals a 5-4 victory in Game 4 on Wednesday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. With Kelowna about to be called for a delayed penalty, the Edmonton Oilers-signed Chase directed the puck into the net during a scramble.

Chase admitted he was attempting to pass to Brandon Magee.

“I saw a sea of bodies and wasn’t planning on shooting. The puck hit something and went in,” he said.

“The biggest thing for us is to believe. We believe we can win this. We are taking it one period, one game at a time.”

The Royals rallied from a 4-2 third-period deficit to keep their season alive.

“We showed resiliency and character,” said Chase.

Few expect the Rockets’ legitimate dreams of the 2015 Memorial Cup to be dashed by Victoria. But on this night, the Royals weren’t buying into the series storyline some see as pre-ordained.

The Rockets, ranked No. 2 in the WHL and No. 4 in the Canadian Hockey League were winners of 53 games in the regular season. The Rockets are now 7-1 in the post-season

Up against the Canucks’ playoff opener, the game still drew a respectable crowd of 4,909. And it was loud on Blanshard, especially in the third period and overtime.

“This was the result of the belief we have in our room,” said Victoria head coach Dave Lowry.

“We showed desperation . . . and that’s what playoff hockey is all about. The boys want to keep playing. They did a great job of killing penalties tonight [Kelowna’s high-octane power play was held to 0-8].”

The Royals staved off, at least for two days, a sort of passing of an era.

Royals 20-year-olds Magee, Austin Carroll and Travis Brown will graduate from junior hockey when this series is done. Of Victoria’s seven 19-year-olds, only three can return. So it is guaranteed to be a much different Royals team that returns in September. But those will be issues for the fall.

This team suddenly still has a game to prepare for Friday. If a Game 6 is needed, it will be in Victoria on Sunday night.

Carroll, the regular-season Victoria scoring champion, had an eventful night with a goal and 10-minute misconduct. Under NHL contract with Calgary, the Scottsdale-raised winger will begin his pro career in September in the Flames organization.

Goals by Lucas Johansen, Tyson Baillie and Rourke Chartier gave Kelowna a 3-1 first-period lead with Carroll responding for Victoria. Jack Walker, snake-bitten around the net earlier in this series, broke through the left side to pull Victoria to within 3-2 at 11:01 of the second period after some typical Magee hitting and hustle helped to set it up. But Tomas Soustal’s goal restored Kelowna’s two-goal cushion at 18:28 and looked to deflate any hopes the Royals had of a comeback.

Yet these Royals refuse to go quietly. Walker struck for a scrambly goal at 10:42 of the third period. Magee tied it 4-4 at 11:06 with his ninth goal of the playoffs. Magee then rang a shot off the post in the final two minutes of regulation time, as did Logan Fisher off the cross-bar in OT before Chase ended it.

Chants of “ref you suck” rang out after a questionable call assessed to Joe Hicketts in the second period after officials missed a blatant Kelowna penalty against him. Penalties, which have kept Victoria on the back skate all series, were again a factor. Kelowna, which had six power-play goals in the first three games, didn’t get another and that was the key Wednesday for Victoria.

“Our penalty kill was awesome with guys sacrificing their bodies,” said Chase.

Justin Paulic, making his first playoff start in the crease for Victoria, made 36 saves and stopped Nick Merkley on a penalty shot in the second period. Jackson Whistle, Kelowna’s regular No. 1, blocked 27 shots.

For the second year in a row, Victoria has made it to at least Game 5 of the second round of the WHL playoffs following last year’s five-game loss to the Portland Winter Hawks. That has established high-water marks in that it’s the farthest the franchise has advanced in its nine-year-history, the first five of which were in Chilliwack as the Bruins.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com