Recap: VIC 3 - POR 2

Steven Hodges scored the game winning goal and Coleman Vollrath made 37 saves as the visiting Victoria Royals beat the Portland Winterhawks 3-2 Saturday night.

Hodges scores the game winner

“…Our power play got a big goal, we capitalized on a couple opportunities, we stayed with it, and our patience tonight probably won us the game.” – Head Coach Dave Lowry

The Royals beat the ‘Hawks for a second time on the road this season, after a 3-2 overtime victory back on November 9th.  

It was the first of three meetings as Victoria opens a 5 game homestand next Friday with a pair against Portland, the number 5 ranked team in the CHL.  The Royals earned honourable mentions in the rankings.

Vollrath made 37 saves for the win

Portland was without World Junior participants Taylor Leir, Nic Petan and Derrick Pouliot.  Brendan Leipsic served the final game of his suspensions, a total of 39% of their total team points were out of the line up.

“They’re missing guys out of the line up, but we played our team game - we executed really well.  They had pushes throughout the game as they always do, but we weathered the storm and definitely came back with our own pushes.”  - Royals Forward Steven Hodges

Victoria earns the split on their two game US weekend road swing, after falling 5-3 in Spokane Friday.

Saturday night the Royals never trailed as Axel Blomqvist opened the scoring late in the first, only to have the Winterhawks respond 1:06 later to draw even at 1 after 20 minutes.

Victoria scored the only goal of the second courtesy of Austin Carroll on the power play, earning his team leading 21st of the season.

Leading 2-1 in the third, Steven Hodges stole the puck, went in alone to score, putting the club up 3-1 with 3:20 to go.  With :25 seconds left and the goaltender pulled, Portland scored to bring them as close as they’d get as Victoria hung on for a 3-2 victory.

The Royals remain in 3rd in the West, pulling 4 points up on the Winterhawks who take the 2nd seed due to divisional seeding.

Victoria was 1 for 3 on the power play, while stopping all 4 Portland man advantages.

Vollrath earned his 10th win of the season, coming in with the top save percentage and goals against average in the league.

On the road, Victoria is now 8 games over .500 (14-6-0-1).

The Royals are without, Joe Hicketts (upper 6-7 weeks), forward Logan Nelson (upper 1-2 weeks), and forward Braden Oleksyn (upper 4-5 weeks).

The Royals celebrate the win.

Winning Silver at the U-17’s with Team Pacific are Royals Tyler Soy (2g 3a) and Chaz Reddekopp (2a).

- Marlon Martens

Victoria Royals 3 at Portland Winterhawks 2 - Status: Final
Saturday, January 4, 2014 - Veterans Memorial Coliseum - Portland, OR

Victoria 1 1 1 - 3
Portland 1 0 1 - 2

1st Period-
1, Victoria, Blomqvist 16 (Schacher, Cote), 17:28.
2, Portland, Turgeon 4 (De Champlain, Iverson), 18:34.

Penalties-De Leo Por (hooking), 9:04; Carroll Vic (interference), 9:52; Carroll Vic (roughing), 19:59.

2nd Period-
3, Victoria, Carroll 21 (Magee, Fransoo), 2:22 (PP).

Penalties-Bjorkstrand Por (slashing), 1:02; Bittner Por (roughing), 6:46; Gagnon Vic (high sticking), 9:35; Walker Vic (tripping), 13:19; Cote Vic (roughing), 13:59; Bittner Por (roughing), 13:59.

3rd Period-
4, Victoria, Hodges 8   16:40.
5, Portland, Viveiros 2   19:35.

Penalties-Fransoo Vic (major-fighting), 19:35; Bittner Por (major-fighting), 19:35.

Shots on Goal-
Victoria 13-9-4-26.
Portland 14-13-12-39.

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

Goalies-
Victoria, Vollrath 10-4-0-1 (39 shots-37 saves).
Portland, Schamerhorn 3-2-0-0 (26 shots-23 saves).

A-6,132
Referees-Adam Griffiths (36), Brett Montsion (54).
Linesmen-Jacob Hill (122), Nathan Van Oosten (115).