Friday 23 January 2015

Recap: KAM 4 - VIC 3 OTL

Ryan Rehill scored in overtime to lift the visiting Kamloops Blazers to a 4-3 victory over the Victoria Royals (25-19-3-1, 54pts) Friday night, in the first of back to back games.

The Royals had their 5 game win streak snapped in front of a sellout crowd, and now have points in their last 6 (5-0-1-0), and 9 of their last 10 (8-1-1-0).

The Blazers (18-24-3-3, 42pts) pushed their win streak to a season high 4 games, and move into a 3 way tie for the final playoff spot in the West with 42 points joining the Cougars and the Giants.

Kamloops outshot Victoria 45-31, but trailed the Royals 3-2 in the third period after Matthew Phillips gave the home team their first lead of the game with his 1st goal in his first WHL game.

Quinn Benjafield forced overtime with his 2nd of the night and was named first star.

Greg Chase and Alex Forsberg scored the other Royals goals. Cole Ully opened the scoring for Kamloops who snapped a winless in 5 road skid.

Connor Ingram earned the victory, while Coleman Vollrath took the overtime loss.

Neither team was able to capitalize on the powerplay with the Royals going 0/1, while the Blazers went 0/2.

Their were no penalties in the first and 3rd periods plus overtime.

After Victoria entertains Kamloops in the rubber match Saturday night, they head out on a three game US Division road trip with stops in Portland Wednesday, Spokane Friday and Tri City Saturday.

- Marlon Martens

Kamloops Blazers 4 (OT) at Victoria Royals 3 - Status: Final OT
Friday, January 23, 2015 - Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena - Victoria, BC

Kamloops 1 1 1 1 - 4
Victoria 0 2 1 0 - 3

1st Period-
1, Kamloops, Ully 22 (Sideroff, Gaudet), 16:13.

Penalties-No Penalties

2nd Period-
2, Victoria, Chase 13 (Soy, Sayers), 2:45.
3, Kamloops, Benjafield 2 (Chyzowski, Campese), 3:21.
4, Victoria, Forsberg 18 (Brown), 5:46.

Penalties-McNulty Kam (hooking), 3:56; Carroll Vic (slashing), 4:15; Nagy Vic (tripping), 10:12.

3rd Period-
5, Victoria, Phillips 1 (Walker, Carroll), 13:55.
6, Kamloops, Benjafield 3   15:21.

Penalties-No Penalties

OT Period-
7, Kamloops, Rehill 6 (McVeigh), 1:25.

Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-
Kamloops 18-15-11-1-45.
Victoria 10-9-12-0-31.

Power Play Opportunities-
Kamloops 0 / 2;
Victoria 0 / 1.

Goalies-
Kamloops, Ingram 11-11-1-3 (31 shots-28 saves).
Victoria, Vollrath 19-12-3-1 (45 shots-41 saves).

A-7,006
Referees-Chris Crich (20), Kyle Kowalski (15).
Linesmen-Jeff MacAdams, Kirk Van Helvoirt (107).