Recap: Seattle 1 - Victoria 4 (Feb 5)

Hodges and Walker celebrate a goal in the Royals 4-1 win over T-birds Tuesday

The Victoria Royals pull into tie for 5th in the West with Spokane after a 4-1 victory over the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds in the first of back to back games, Tuesday night.

Patrik Polivka made 26 saves for 1st star honours and extends the franchise record home point streak to 11 games.

The Royals take a 3-0 season series lead and will look for the sweep Wednesday, with the pregame show on The Zone @ 91.3 fm at 6:40.

“We found a way to win a hockey game.  Let’s not take anything away from Seattle, they came in and played a real solid road game and we had to fight right to the end to win.” – Dave Lowry, Royals Head Coach

In the final frame, Victoria lost their leading scorer Alex Gogolev to an apparent skate cut to his lower leg.  Gogolev has scored a goal in each of his last 3 games, and leads the club with 65 points in 49 games.

Brandon Glover

The Royals held period leads of 2-0 and 3-1 on goals by Jamie Crooks (24th), Alex Gogolev (20th) and Steven Hodges (21st) before Joe Hicketts (2nd) added a short handed empty net goal late for the insurance.  Shea Theodore scored the lone tally for the Thunderbirds on the power play.

“We can’t play like that for a full game, it’s not doable.  We’ve got to be more disciplined and we’re going to come out tomorrow and be stronger and have to really limit our turnovers in the neutral zone and get pucks behind their (defense) and attack from there.” – Steven Hodges, Royals Forward

Victoria native Brandon Glover allowed 3 goals on 24 shots for his 22nd loss of the season, while Polivka earned his 25th win.

-mm

Seattle Thunderbirds 1 at Victoria Royals 4 - Status: Final
Tuesday, February 5, 2013 - Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena - Victoria, BC

Seattle 0 1 0 - 1
Victoria 2 1 1 - 4

1st Period-
1, Victoria, Crooks 24 (Fisher), 12:19.
2, Victoria, Gogolev 20 (Magee, Hicketts), 19:15.

Penalties-Kambeitz Sea (hooking), 8:11; Delnov Sea (roughing), 15:06.

2nd Period-
3, Seattle, Theodore 13 (Smith, Lipsbergs), 1:46 (PP).
4, Victoria, Hodges 21 (Walker, Dixon), 12:41.

Penalties-Honey Sea (slashing), 0:25; Crunk Vic (roughing, roughing), 0:25; Kambeitz Sea (inter. on goaltender), 4:39; Kanzig Vic (roughing), 10:38.

3rd Period-
5, Victoria, Hicketts 2   19:09 (SH EN).

Penalties-Gagnon Vic (checking to the head), 13:14; Kanzig Vic (tripping), 18:05; Kambeitz Sea (10-minute misconduct), 19:23; Sanvido Sea (slashing), 19:23.

Shots on Goal-
Seattle 8-10-9-27.
Victoria 11-9-5-25.

Power Play Opportunities-
Seattle 1 / 4;
Victoria 0 / 3.

Goalies-
Seattle, Glover 18-22-4-1 (24 shots-21 saves).
Victoria, Polivka 25-11-1-2 (27 shots-26 saves).

A-3,907
Referees-Ryan Benbow (62), Pat Smith (12).
Linesmen-Riley Friesen (76), Kirk Van Helvoirt (107).