KELOWNA 4
VICTORIA 3
(Rockets lead series 2-0)
The Victoria Royals have penalized themselves into a big hole.
Yet, of the undisciplined penalties the Royals took Saturday night in Kelowna, it’s ironic the WHL playoff game turned on two penalties that perhaps should not have been called.
Penalized Victoria defenceman Chaz Reddekopp had just stepped back on to the ice from a controversial penalty late in the third period when Tyson Baillie ended it at 58 seconds of overtime to give the Kelowna Rockets a 4-3 victory and 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven second-round series.
It was a heartbreaker for a Royals team that had rallied from a 3-0 deficit against the No. 2 team in the WHL and No. 4 in the CHL.
Leon Draisaitl, the Edmonton Oilers prospect from Cologne, Germany, delivered three daggers in the form of pin-point assists for the Rockets. The other factor in the Kelowna victory was goaltender Jackson Whistle’s 38 saves against a Victoria team vastly improved from Friday’s 5-0 debacle in the opening game.
Reddekopp was judged to have hit Nick Merkley from behind in that borderline call late in the third.
It was also Merkley who fell at 18:25 of the first period without appearing to be hit. But Travis Brown was whistled for cross-checking, which enraged the Royals. The Rockets scored the opening goal on the ensuing powerplay, on a Baillie shot from a rink-wide pass by Draisaitl. It was epic foreshadowing of what was to come in OT.
Greg Chase compounded the situation by being called for a game misconduct for throwing his mouth-guard, depriving the Royals of the Edmonton Oilers-signed forward for the final two periods.
Victoria coach Dave Lowry, by phone, refused to comment after the game about the two arguable penalty calls.
“We played with emotion and took too many penalties [eight]. But we are not going to change the way we play,” said Lowry.
“We regroup and go at it again [in Games 3-4 Tuesday and Wednesday in Victoria].”
Tomas Soustal made it 2-0 in the second period. The Rockets scored on the power play to make it 3-0 as yet another Draisaitl assist found Gage Quinney at 11:16 of the second. That was it for Victoria goalkeeper Coleman Vollrath, replaced for the first time in the playoffs by Justin Paulic.
Whistle was finally solved at 18:02 of the second by Brandon Magee on the power play. Joe Hicketts scored on the power play again to bring the Royals to within one at 7:31 of the third period before Magee tied it 3-3 at 18:26 with his eighth goal of the playoffs.
Regular-season Victoria scoring champion Austin Carroll, who had been quiet in the playoffs, broke out by assisting on all three goals in regulation time.
