Recap: VIC 3 - KEL 0

Coleman Vollrath made 26 saves as the visiting Victoria Royals (6-1) shut out the Kelowna Rockets 3-0 Friday night for their best start in franchise history.

It was their first meeting since Victoria fell in five to Kelowna in round 2 of the post season, and a battle for top spot in the league.

“It feels good,” said Vollrath, who’s been in the net every game this season,

“They’re the team that that ended our season a lot earlier than we hoped…we got lucky to squeak our a win here tonight, they’re a good team.”

Ryan Peckford broke a scoreless tie in the third period for the eventual game winner, while Matthew Phillips struck on the power play and Vladimir Bobylev into an empty net sealed it for the Royals.

“We got our legs under us, and our goaltender made timely saves, especially early on...”  said Head Coach Dave Lowry,  “You get timely scoring and young guys contributing – it gives you a chance to win.”

The Royals were outshot 11-5 in the first, but locked things down in the 2^nd out shooting the Rockets 7-4, then 14-11 in the final frame.

“I liked the way we played after the first 20 minutes, we stuck to the system and played our way for the remaining 40 minutes – I think that’s why we were able to win tonight.” said Vollrath.

Victoria went 1 for 3 on the power play, while shutting down all 4 Kelowna man advantages.  The Royals own the top penalty kill percentage in the league.

There were some big hits thrown in a physical game, and one fight involving Chaz Reddekopp and Cole Linaker.

“I thought the discipline,” said Lowry when asked about other contributing factors in the win,

“We might be smaller, but we did a really good job of hunting pucks tonight, did a really good job of tracking and turning pucks over…we wanted to make sure we kept the pucks out of the forwards (Rockets) hands for as much as possible throughout the night.”

20 year old netminder Jackson Whistle suffered the loss for the Rockets stopping 23 of 25.

Victoria moves into top spot in the league with 12 points and a 6-1 record, two more points than Kelowna (5-3) and Calgary (5-1).

“We’re a young team, we’re going to need every opportunity to find positives and to build what we’re trying to do here.  This is a tough building to win in, and I give our guys a lot of credit.”

The Royals earned their first shut out of the season, and back to back wins while the Rockets had their two game win streak snapped.  Kelowna had lost only 8 times in regulation last season.

It was the first road game of the year for Victoria, who visit the 0-5 Kamloops Blazers Saturday night, a club that will be fresh – being idle Friday.

“We’ll have to take the emotion out of this game and channel it into (Saturday) night and we’re going to have to make sure our first period is going to have to be a really good period for us.”

- Marlon Martens

Victoria Royals 3 at Kelowna Rockets 0 - Status: Final
Friday, October 9, 2015 - Prospera Place - Kelowna, BC

Victoria 0 0 3 - 3
Kelowna 0 0 0 - 0

1st Period- No Scoring.

Penalties-Bobylev Vic (slashing), 6:44; Ibragimov Vic (hooking), 13:30; Reddekopp Vic (major-fighting), 15:49; Linaker Kel (major-fighting), 15:49.

2nd Period- No Scoring.

Penalties-Gagnon Vic (roughing), 5:46; Merkley Kel (roughing), 5:46; Stadel Kel (roughing), 5:46; Stephens Kel (delay of game), 7:22; Walker Vic (delay of game), 12:51.

3rd Period-

1, Victoria, Peckford 2 (Walker, Gagnon), 2:55.

2, Victoria, Phillips 2 (Hicketts, Soy), 7:13 (PP).

3, Victoria, Bobylev 4   18:25 (EN).

Penalties-Soustal Kel (tripping), 6:36; Southam Kel (10-minute misconduct), 7:13; Price Vic (checking to the head), 9:23.

Shots on Goal-

Victoria 5-7-14-26.

Kelowna 11-4-11-26.

Power Play Opportunities-

Victoria 1 / 3;

Kelowna 0 / 4.

Goalies-

Victoria, Vollrath 6-1-0-0 (26 shots-26 saves).

Kelowna, Whistle 4-1-0-0 (25 shots-23 saves).

A-5,329
Referees-Brett Iverson (24), Mark Pearce (5).
Linesmen-Dustin Minty (86), Cody Wanner (56).