VOICE OF THE VICTORIA ROYALS: Recap: VIC 2

By Marlon Martens (more pics below scoring summary)

The Portland Winterhawks scored 3 times on the power play and Nic Petan had a 4 point night to upset the visiting Victoria Royals 8-2 in game one of the Western Conference Semi-Final series at Veterans Memorial Coliseum Friday night.

“We’re down 1 game. It doesn’t matter if you lose 10-1 or 1-0. It’s a loss. We just have to make sure we’re ready to come tomorrow, compete, and find a way to win a game.” – Head Coach Dave Lowry

Vollrath denies Leipsic

The Winterhawks held period leads of 2-0 and 6-2, while 5 of their players had 3 point nights. Oliver Bjorkstrand (2g 1a), Brendan Leipsic (1g 2a), Taylor Leir (3a), Mathew Dumba (2g 1a), Derrick Pouliot (1g 2a) and Petan with (1g 3a).

It was a fiesty affair with a pair of fights, and 147 minutes in total penalties – 89 to Victoria.

“We just ended up taking too many penalties, we know that they’re a super offensive team – they lead the league in goal this season. They’re going to to score if they get the chances. We just need to limit those chances.” - Logan Fisher, Royals Forward

#3 Ryan Gagnon fights Garrett Haar and Keegan Kanzig and Keegan Iverson drop the mitts.

Portland went 3 for 10 with the man advantage scoring twice on 5 on 3 opportunities, while Victoria was 1 for 6.

Nelson lines up Dumba

“…Our discipline was an issue again tonight, we have to make sure we find a way tomorrow night to clean that up and give ourselves a chance to win a hockey game.” According to Lowry

The Royals outshot the Winterhawks in the first 13-9, but Portland evened the shot clock after 40 at 21 a piece, going on to a 35-27 advantage.

“I really like the way we started, thought we had great pace, real good push, created some opportunities…” said Lowry

Brendan Burke stones Logan Nelson on a breakaway

Starting netminder Patrik Polivka was relieved in the second period by Coleman Vollrath, on Portlands 3-0 goal, which came on a 2 on 0 breakaway by Petan.

Victoria responded with Taylor Crunks goal :21 seconds later, and according Lowry,

“You hope that you don’t have to make a goaltending change all the time, but we had a great answer, but the unfortante thing is that the next shift, we didn’t have that answer.”

The Winterhawks added 3 more in a span of eleven minutes to go up 6-1. Brandon Magee’s one timer on the power play made it 6-2 before the second was out.

The Winterhawks score on a 5 on 3

Portland added a pair of 5 on 3 goals in the final frame.

Fisher in on Burke in the 1st period.

Netminder Brendan Burke made 25 saves for the victory, Polivka was 9 for 12 and Vollrath 18 for 23 in 36 minutes of work.

Shortly after the 7-2 goal, Keegan Kanzig got into a fight with Paul Bittner, Keegan Iverson jumped in, and, as Ryan Gagnon went to Kanzig’s defense, was pulled out by Garrett Haar who received the wrath of Gagnon’s right hand.

“You always have to stick up for your teammates. I’ll go to war like that any day, for any one of our guys.” – Royals defenseman Ryan Gagnon

Attendance was 6,152.

Game 2 goes Saturday at the Moda Center, with puck drop at 7:08.

“It’s a fresh start, fresh game, forget the last one and do what we can to win the next one.” said Fisher.

- Marlon Martens

Winterhawks celebrate a goal

Victoria Royals 2 at Portland Winterhawks 8 - Status: Final
Friday, April 4, 2014 - Veterans Memorial Coliseum - Portland, OR

Victoria 0 2 0 - 2
Portland 2 4 2 - 8

1st Period-
1, Portland, De Leo 2 (Bjorkstrand, Leier), 8:53.
2, Portland, Leipsic 6 (Petan, Bittner), 13:15.

Penalties-Blomqvist Vic (cross checking), 9:23; Kanzig Vic (roughing), 15:29; Schoenborn Por (roughing), 15:29; Petan Por (slashing), 16:53.

2nd Period-
3, Portland, Petan 2 (Leipsic), 3:11.
4, Victoria, Crunk 1 (Fushimi, Fisher), 3:32.
5, Portland, Bjorkstrand 5 (Leier, Pouliot), 5:06 (PP).
6, Portland, Dumba 1 (Hanson, Petan), 12:01.
7, Portland, Bjorkstrand 6 (Leier, Leipsic), 16:22.
8, Victoria, Magee 2 (Fransoo, Walker), 17:13 (PP).

Penalties-Petan Por (boarding), 1:03; Palmer Vic (tripping), 4:14; Magee Vic (interference), 5:32; Nelson Vic (roughing), 8:05; Dumba Por (high sticking), 8:05; Hodges Vic (10-minute misconduct), 13:26; Cederholm Por (roughing), 13:26; Hanson Por (10-minute misconduct), 13:26; Carroll Vic (checking to the head), 14:19; Haar Por (hooking), 17:08; Carroll Vic (roughing), 19:10.

3rd Period-
9, Portland, Pouliot 2 (Dumba), 10:17 (PP).
10, Portland, Dumba 2 (Pouliot, Petan), 11:04 (PP).

Penalties-Magee Vic (slashing), 1:20; Nelson Vic (cross checking), 6:22; Petan Por (embellishment), 6:22; Kanzig Vic (unsportsmanlike cnd.), 8:34; Magee Vic (slashing, 10-minute misconduct), 9:39; Gagnon Vic (major-fighting, game misconduct), 10:25; Kanzig Vic (instigator, major-fighting, 10-minute misconduct), 10:25; Bittner Por (major-fighting), 10:25; Haar Por (major-fighting, game misconduct), 10:25; Iverson Por (game misconduct), 10:25; Cote Vic (major-slashing, game misconduct), 11:04; De Champlain Por (tripping), 14:30; De Champlain Por (slashing), 19:07.

Shots on Goal-
Victoria 13-8-6-27.
Portland 9-12-14-35.

Power Play Opportunities-
Victoria 1 / 6;
Portland 3 / 10.

Goalies-
Victoria, Polivka 4-1-0-0 (12 shots-9 saves); Vollrath 0-0-0-0 (23 shots-18 saves). Portland, Burke 5-0-0-0 (27 shots-25 saves).

A-6,152
Referees-Mike Campbell (89), Jeff Ingram (82).
Linesmen-Jarrod Boman (116), Bevan Mills (98).