Recap | Feb. 17 | Rockets (2) @ Royals (3)
Victoria, BC – For the second time in as many nights, the Victoria Royals (27-21-4-4) played host to the Kelowna Rockets (24-28-3-0) at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre during the teams Lunar New Year festivities. It was the eighth and final encounter on the season between the Royals and Rockets, as Victoria was aiming to close out the season series by earning victories on six of eight occasions.
In between the pipes, the Royals and Rockets didn’t change from Friday, as it was 20-year-old netminder Braden Holt getting his second consecutive start for Victoria, while Kelowna countered with Jari Kykkanen.
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The opening period of play saw the teams trade penalties with as they found themselves short-handed on two occasions apiece. Reggie Newman and Deegan Kinniburgh each sat for a couple minutes, but the Royals penalty killing unit was up the challenge. On the other side, the Rockets had Dylan Wightman and Max Graham enter their names into the penalty sheet. It was the second infringement from the Rockets late in the period that gave the Royals life, as they capitalized with the extra-man.
Reggie Newman (14) parked himself in front of the net of Kykkanen to provide a screen as the big forward made his presence known. A Jaren Brinson shot from the blue line made its way through the Rockets defenders before deflecting off the stick of Newman and by Kykkanen to open the scoring. The late powerplay marker came with just 47 seconds remaining in the period as Victoria would take that advantage into the middle frame.
The break must’ve been a good one for Reggie Newman, as he decided to continue the good fortune into the middle frame. It took just nine seconds for Newman (15) to find the back of the net to extend the Royals lead to a pair. The power forward put himself in the right place as Tanner Scott circled behind the Rockets net and found Newman alone in front for a redirect that found the top corner of the Rockets net.
While the scoring may have started early in the middle stanza, it wouldn’t be the theme for the entire period as neither side would find the back of the net throughout the rest of the frame, giving the Royals a two-goal lead into the third.
The Rockets would pull themselves back into the contest in the third period as they collected a pair of goals in the opening ten minutes. First, it was Tij Iginla (37) finding the back of the net for Kelowna as he scored in his second consecutive game for the Rockets. Shortly after that, it was Rockets captain Gabriel Szturc (27) notching the equalizer.
It looked as if the game-would require overtime, but it took a turn late in the third. Victoria took a too many men on the ice penalty with just over three minutes remaining, giving Kelowna a glorious opportunity to complete the comeback. Cole Reschny had other ideas.
The 16-year-old forward dazzled his way to a highlight of the night candidate. After stealing the puck from the opposing blue line, Reschny (17) did the rest as he evaded the stick-check from Caden Price as he put the puck between his legs and wired the puck past Kykkanen to lift the Royals over the Rockets.
Kelowna would pull their goalie for an extra-attacker, but failed to find the back of the net as the Royals hung on for the 3-2 victory.
