VICTORIA 6 SPOKANE 1
Before the Victoria Royals left for eastern Washington state, head coach Dave Lowry observed how “everybody talks about how low-scoring we are.”
Sure, and he’s also got a former blue bridge to sell you downtown.
“We have to manufacture goals,” he added.
That would have been news to the 3,412 fans watching the first period of Wednesday night’s Western Hockey League playoff game in the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena as the Royals exploded for four goals in the opening frame en route to a 6-1 Game 3 victory over the Chiefs.
The third-seed Royals, whose regular-season success was built on its stingy conference-best and WHL second-best 181 goals against, lead the best-of-seven Western Conference opening-round series 3-0 over the sixth-seed Chiefs.
Another key statistic from the regular season was that Victoria went 26-9-1 on the road. The Royals proved again Wednesday they are just as dangerous away from Blanshard Street as they are on it.
Spokane now has a monumental task in attempting to become only the third team in WHL playoff history to rally from a 3-0 games deficit and win a series.
Game 4 is tonight in Spokane. If the Chiefs can extend the series, Game 5 will be Saturday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
“Our mindset has not changed [despite the 3-0 series lead],” said Lowry, following Wednesday’s victory.
“We have to be prepared and dialed in.”
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Ben Walker scored at just 11 seconds Wednesday for the fastest goal to start a playoff game or period in the eight-year history of the Chilliwack Bruins/Royals franchise. It also extended Walker’s playoff scoring streak to seven games, stretching into last year.
“We knew the first goal of the game was going to be the big one,” said Lowry. “Getting it so early allowed us to play our game. It was a total team win.”
Austin Carroll, who led the Royals in regular-season goals with 34, got his first of the playoffs at 7:37 to put Victoria ahead by two on just Victoria’s fifth shot of the game. Defenceman Jordan Fransoo connected for Victoria’s first power-play goal of the post-season, on its ninth attempt of the series, at 13:31. Victoria’s power play awoke again at 15:44 when Carroll scored his second on Brandon Magee’s second assist of the night.
Spokane took one back at 10:04 of the second period through Liam Stewart’s second goal of the series. But the Victoria goals continued as Logan Nelson and defenceman Travis Brown notched their second each of the series, the latter on Victoria’s third power-play goal of the evening.
Patrik Polivka made 20 saves for Victoria and Eric Williams and Garret Hughson combined for just 18 for Spokane.
Meanwhile, the second-seed Portland Winterhawks swept the seventh-seed Vancouver Giants with a 6-1 victory in Game 4 on Wednesday at the Pacific Coliseum. The result guarantees that should Victoria advance to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs, it would meet Portland with the Winterhawks having home-ice advantage.
