Recap: VIC 4 - VAN 2

Austin Carroll scored 3 times, as the visiting Victoria Royals doubled the Vancouver Giants 4-2 Friday night in Vancouver to open the regular season.

“I think the last one I had was in Bantam, I haven’t had a multi-goal game yet in Junior – so it was definitely a milestone night for me.” said Carroll.

Logan Nelson had 4 assists, and Brandon Magee had a goal and an assist as their line with Carroll combined for 9 points.

“We worked the puck pretty well today…I think we were just clicking, first game we’re really excited and lucky to have the success we had.”

Patrik Polivka made 34 saves for the victory, while his counterpart, sophmore Payton Lee made 19 stops.  The Giants outshot the Royals 36-23.

“I think tonight we had some timely goal scoring from some of our key players, and our goaltender was extremely well.”

Said Head Coach Dave Lowry.  As for Carroll’s hat trick,

“How nice was that…that’s good for Austin to get back and settle in.  I thought his line mates played extremely well.  They worked for each other, played together, and were rewarded…”

Trailing 1-0 after 20 minutes on Anthony Ast’s power play marker, Victoria came to life in the second with 3 goals started by Magee.  Carroll notched the next two before completing the natural hat trick in the 3rd taking a 4-1 lead.  Tyler Morrison cut the lead in half before the Giants pulled their netminder late, but were unable to strike and suffered defeat.

The contest had it’s physical moments, as the Royals faced former teammate Tim Traber for the first time.  Traber who was stopped by Polivka on a short handed breakaway, took a boarding and roughing penalty.

Victoria was 0 for 2 on the the power play, while Vancouver was 1 for 3.

“We had to play to our strengths tonight.  Outside the first period we did a lot of good things, and we managed the puck and got pucks to the net with some big bodies.”

They’ll meet again Saturday night on the Island for the Royals home opener.

“We’re going to have to make sure we have a heck of a lot better first period than what we had tonight, and eliminate some quality chances against.”

- Marlon Martens

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Victoria Royals 4 at Vancouver Giants 2 - Status: Final
Friday, September 20, 2013 - Pacific Coliseum - Vancouver, BC

Victoria 0 3 1 - 4
Vancouver 1 0 1 - 2

1st Period-
1, Vancouver, Ast 1 (Ronning, Popoff), 4:38 (PP).

Penalties-Magee Vic (holding opp. stick), 2:40; Geertsen Van (tripping), 15:45.

2nd Period-
2, Victoria, Magee 1 (Nelson), 3:28.
3, Victoria, Carroll 1 (Nelson, Fransoo), 9:44.
4, Victoria, Carroll 2 (Magee, Nelson), 13:14.

Penalties-Fushimi Vic (roughing), 2:52; Morrison Van (roughing), 2:52; Walker Vic (hooking), 3:52; Traber Van (boarding), 4:57; Lofthouse Vic (hooking), 10:26.

3rd Period-
5, Victoria, Carroll 3 (Nelson, Dixon), 9:44.
6, Vancouver, Morrison 1   12:41.

Penalties-Carroll Vic (roughing), 0:50; Traber Van (roughing), 0:50.

Shots on Goal-
Victoria 8-11-4-23.
Vancouver 8-15-13-36.

Power Play Opportunities-
Victoria 0 / 2;
Vancouver 1 / 3.

Goalies-
Victoria, Polivka 1-0-0-0 (36 shots-34 saves).
Vancouver, Lee 0-1-0-0 (23 shots-19 saves).

A-7,182
Referees-Adam Griffiths (36), Pat Smith (12).
Linesmen-Justin Hull (49), Nathan Van Oosten (115).