Having reached the last three Western Hockey League finals, the defending champion Portland Winterhawks have been the recent gold standard by which other WHL teams measure themselves.
During that stretch they have lost players like Seth Jones, Ty Rattie, Joe Morrow, Sven Bartschi and Ryan Johansen to the pro ranks only to see the golden pipeline replenish itself with a 14-4-2 start this season.
But the Winterhawks probably didn’t figure on Coleman Vollrath and Brandon Magee of the Victoria Royals throwing a spanner into the works Saturday in a 3-2 Royals overtime victory before 9,097 fans in the Rose City. Magee scored two goals, including the winner at 31 seconds of overtime. Goaltender Vollrath, coming off a 43-save performance Friday in a 5-3 Royals victory in Seattle, followed up in Portland with 41 stops as Victoria moved to 12-9-1.
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“It starts with your goaltender,” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry.
What made the victory even more impressive is that Victoria was missing three of its top-four defencemen to injury – Joe Hicketts is out long-term and Flames third-round draft pick Keegan Kanzig and captain Jordan Fransoo are day-to-day.
“We’ve played the last few games with five defencemen and that's a big accomplishment and a real testament to their play,” said Lowry.
Magee, who also scored twice Friday in Seattle, has notched four of his five goals this season in the last two games. “Brandon had been struggling and putting pressure on himself. But he worked through it and put it on his shoulders this weekend,” said Lowry.
Austin Carroll’s ninth goal of the season got Victoria off to a quick start just 25 seconds in. Taylor Leier pulled the Winterhawks level less than two minutes later. Magee put Victoria ahead 2-1 before the game was seven minutes old.
The next goal didn’t come until 14:14 of the third period when Danish import and Columbus Blue Jackets third-round NHL draft pick Oliver Bjorkstrand scored his 16th goal to tie it 2-2.
Victoria hosts Seattle on Friday and next Saturday.
