Recap: PG 3 - VIC 4 SOW

Steven Hodges notched the shoot out winner

The Victoria Royals took both games from the visiting Prince George Cougars after overcoming a 3-0 third period deficit on Saturday night enroute to a 4-3 shoot out win.

The Royals celebrate 4-3 shoot out victory over Cougars

Brandon Magee and Steven Hodges scored in the shootout, while Coleman Vollrath denied Caleb Belter and Dalton Siwak.  Ben Walker missed for Victoria.

The Royals also took the Friday night contest 5-1, and now have a 5-1 season series lead, winning back to back home games against the Cougars for the first time in team history (5-3).  They’ll meet twice more in Prince George February 1st and 2nd.

Chase Witala (2g 1a) scored the lone goal of the first, and after Colin Jacobs (1g 1a) put them up 2-0 in the second, Witala scored his second of the game to give Prince George a 3-0 lead heading into the third.  Victoria Head Coach Dave Lowry was asked what was said to his players after 40 minutes,

“Truth be told, they took it upon themselves and I give our leadership lots of credit because we never went it and said anything – whatever they said, it worked.”

Austin Carroll (1g 1a) scored :37 seconds into the third after a clean face off win from Steven Hodges, Jamie Crooks earned his 17th on the power play to cut the lead to 3-2 at the mid way point of the period before Brandon Magee (1g 1a) evened the score with under 3 minutes to go.

Coleman Vollrath (2-4-0-0) who hasn’t started since November 9th in Calgary, but has had some relief appearances since, stopped all 10 shots after replacing Patrik Polivka in the second with this team down 3-0,

“We’re not taking anything for granted right now, that was a big comeback win, but at the same time if you look at the first couple of periods we didn’t play up to our standards and expectations and we have to come out better than that.”

Polivka stopped 7 of 10, while Mac Engel got the nod for Prince George stopping 41 shots, and was beaten twice in the shoot out.  The Royals out shot the Cougars 44-20 overall.

Keegan Kanzig was involved in a heavy weight fight with Dallas Ehrhardt late in the 2nd, and Lowry eluded to it as a key moment for the club,

Kanzig vs Ehrhadt

“I thought Kanzig did a good job (in the fight) and as soon as we had a bit of emotion we seemed to generate some enthusiasm and were able to find a way to carry it over (into the 3rd).”

Victoria went 1 for 6 on the power play, while Prince George clicked twice in the second going 2 for 6.

Brandon Magee earned 5 points (1g 4a) in the two game set, while Jamie Crooks (2g 2a) had 4 points, Austin Carroll picked up 3 (1g 2a).  Ben Walker had 2 goals and a Gordie Howe Hatrick in the Friday night win.

Lowry commented on the game plan going in without their top 2 scores Alex Gogolev (day to day), and Logan Nelson (lower body) in the line up – a combined 67 points missing,

“We wanted to play the same way we did last night, we didn’t have Gogolev to start the game and we lost Nelson early, and we were able to score 5 goals.  We didn’t really wanted to change anything, we wanted to play fast, we wanted to play physical and the unfortuante thing is, we were neither to start.   I give these guys credit they stayed with it and found a way to win.”

Up next the Royals hit the road for a single game against the Rockets in Kelowna on Wednesday night.

-mm

Prince George Cougars 3 at Victoria Royals 4 (SO) - Status: Final SO
Saturday, December 29, 2012 - Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena - Victoria, BC

Prince George 1 2 0 0 - 3
Victoria 0 0 3 0 - 4

1st Period-
1, Prince George, Witala 5 (Bourke, Gibb), 10:11.

Penalties-McNulty P.g (major-fighting), 3:19; Traber Vic (instigator, major-fighting, 10-minute misconduct), 3:19; Ehrhardt P.g (boarding), 10:28; Carroll Vic (tripping), 11:34; Gibb P.g (checking to the head), 15:07; Belter P.g (roughing), 17:35; Dixon Vic (cross checking), 17:35; Mykitiuk P.g (tripping), 19:33.

2nd Period-
2, Prince George, Jacobs 12 (Witala, Grewal), 4:11 (PP).
3, Prince George, Witala 6 (Bourke, Jacobs), 6:28 (PP).

Penalties-Kanzig Vic (slashing), 3:02; Cote Vic (cross checking), 4:11; Walker Vic (delay of game), 5:43; Fontaine P.g (high sticking), 11:07; Hanes P.g (roughing), 12:55; Traber Vic (roughing), 12:55; Ehrhardt P.g (unsportsmanlike cnd.), 15:01; Kanzig Vic (unsportsmanlike cnd.), 15:01; Jacobs P.g (slashing), 15:07; Ehrhardt P.g (major-fighting), 17:07; Kanzig Vic (major-fighting), 17:07.

3rd Period-
4, Victoria, Carroll 7 (Hodges), 0:37.
5, Victoria, Crooks 17 (Magee, Fransoo), 10:07 (PP).
6, Victoria, Magee 14 (Carroll), 17:21.

Penalties-Hodges Vic (slashing), 6:09; Hanes P.g (inter. on goaltender), 8:57.

OT Period-
No Scoring.

Penalties-No Penalties

Shootout –
Prince George 0 (Belter NG, Siwak NG),
Victoria 2 (Magee G, Walker NG, Hodges G).

Shots on Goal-
Prince George 6-6-3-5-0-20.
Victoria 11-13-15-5-1-45.

Power Play Opportunities-
Prince George 2 / 6;
Victoria 1 / 6.

Goalies-
Prince George,
Engel 4-11-0-4 (44 shots-41 saves).
Victoria,
Polivka 15-8-0-2 (10 shots-7 saves);
Vollrath 2-4-0-0 (10 shots-10 saves).

A-6,025
Referees-Jason Cramer (57), Jon Stephenson (38).
Linesmen-Tim Digby (75), Ron Dietterle (121).