Recap: VIC 5 - TRI 6 OT

Vladislav Lukin scored his 2^nd of the game in overtime to lift the host Tri City Americans (9-13-1-0) past the Victoria Royals 6-5 Saturday night.

“We’ll take the point,” said Royals Head Coach Dave Lowry, who’s club travelled from Vancouver after the game and got into Tri City after 5 am.

“Obviously travel was tough for us this weekend, and we ran out of gas.”

The Royals (16-7-1-1, 34pts) held period leads of 5-3 and 5-4 before having their 2 game win streak snapped, but take 3 of 4 points on their two game road trip after a 5-4 victory over the Giants Friday. 

It was a wild first period with 8 goals being scored, the lead changing hands, and both clubs swapping starting goaltenders.

“We were on the right side of it…” said Lowry on the goal filled first,

“When you play three and a half minutes, you’ve taken two penalties and you’ve given up two goals, that wasn’t the way we wanted to start.  We talked about preparation and tonight we weren’t prepared to start again.”

Coleman Vollrath was lifted after allowing 3 goals on 4 shots, replaced by Griffen Outhouse who stopped 14 of 17. 

Nicholas Sanders started for the Americans but was relieved after allowing 4 goals on 7 Royals shots.  Evan Sarthou came in stop 18 of 19 for the win.

Tyler Soy scored twice, while Alex Forsberg and Ethan Price picked up a pair of assists each.  Victoria also got goals from Chaz Reddekopp shorthanded, Dante Hannoun with his team leading 14th and Logan Fisher deflecting in his 4^th. 

Soy now has 11 on the year, with one coming on the power play.

“We let that one slip away from us…” said Soy who is ‘C’ rated by NHL Central Scouting for the upcoming draft.

“Both nights we had pretty slow starts, and weren’t playing our team game like we have in the past.  We did a good job battling back in both games…Vancouver we were fortunate enough to hold off, but Tri City we didn’t play a full 60 like we needed to.”

Victoria was 1 for 4 on the power play, while Tri City went 2 for 5, cutting the lead to 5-4 in the last minute of the 2^nd period on a 5 on 3 man advantage.

Juuso Valimaki tied the game at 5 with the lone goal of the third to force overtime.

Tri City’s Parker Bowles led the way with a goal and two assists, Brian Williams and Valimaki had a goal and assist each.  Jordan Topping had a pair of helpers.  Brandon Carlo added a single to open the scoring just :40 seconds into the first.

The Royals outshot the Americans 26-21.

Jack Walker could not convert on a first period penalty shot when the game was tied at 3.

The five goal first tied the franchise record for most goals in one period. It has been done on five previous occasions. The eight goals also tied the franchise record for the most by two teams in one period.

Victoria also had their 8 game road win streak snapped, one off the franchise record, but now have points in 9 consecutive road contests.

With the overtime loss the Royals now trail the Rockets by a single point for top spot in the WHL, and will entertain Kelowna for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday.

- Marlon Martens

Victoria Royals 5 at Tri-City Americans 6 (OT) - Status: End of Game
Saturday, November 21, 2015 - Toyota Center - Kennewick, WA

Victoria 5 0 0 0 - 5
Tri-City 3 1 1 1 - 6

1st Period-

1, Tri-City, Carlo 2 (Topping, Bowles), 0:40.

2, Victoria, Reddekopp 3 (Price), 1:38 (SH).

3, Tri-City, Lukin 7 (Sandhu, Valimaki), 2:11 (PP).

4, Victoria, Hannoun 14 (Forsberg), 2:30.

5, Victoria, Soy 10 (Forsberg, Hicketts), 8:17 (PP).

6, Tri-City, Bowles 11 (Williams, Topping), 8:40.

7, Victoria, Soy 11 (Anderson, Gagnon), 10:12.

8, Victoria, Fisher 4 (Nagy, Price), 15:00.

Penalties-Nagy Vic (interference), 0:55; Wharrie Vic (high sticking), 3:22; McCue T.c (hooking), 7:45.

2nd Period-

9, Tri-City, Williams 5 (Bowles, Wotherspoon), 19:34 (PP).

Penalties-Carlo T.c (interference), 0:36; Bowles T.c (interference), 8:41; Forsberg Vic (tripping), 17:47; Gagnon Vic (kneeing), 18:37.

3rd Period-

10, Tri-City, Valimaki 3 (AuCoin, Coghlan), 10:16.

Penalties-Pachal Vic (tripping), 2:52; Williams T.c (slashing), 11:29.

OT Period-

11, Tri-City, Lukin 8 (Carlo), 1:38.

Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-

Victoria 12-4-9-1-26.

Tri-City 7-7-6-1-21.

Power Play Opportunities-

Victoria 1 / 4;

Tri-City 2 / 5.

Goalies-

Victoria, Vollrath 13-6-0-1 (4 shots-1 saves); Outhouse 3-1-1-0 (17 shots-14 saves).

Tri-City, Sanders 1-1-0-0 (7 shots-3 saves); Sarthou 8-12-1-0 (19 shots-18 saves).

A-4,235
Referees-Sean Raphael (28), Ryan Benbow (62).
Linesmen-Trevor Shively (11), Kirk Van Helvoirt (107).