Recap | Feb. 23 | Winterhawks (6) @ Royals (2)
Victoria, BC – The Victoria Royals (27-23-4-4) returned home to the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Friday night as they played host to the Portland Winterhawks (38-14-2-1) during Nickelodeon Night presented by RE/MAX. Both sides were aiming to rebound following their last games, as the Royals fell 3-1 on Monday afternoon to the Kamloops Blazers, while the Winterhawks dropped their most recent contest, 4-0, to the Everett Silvertips on Sunday. It was just the second time this season that Victoria and Portland squared off, with their last meeting taking place back on November 22nd as the Winterhawks edging out the Royals 4-3 in a shootout.
In between the pipes, 20-year-old Braden Holt made his fourth consecutive start for Victoria, while the Winterhawks countered with product of Czechia, Jan Špunar.
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While the Royals started the game short-handed, only able to dress 17 skaters, they were able to capitalize first as Tyson Laventure (25) continued his strong play with is team-leading tally. Laventure worked a perfectly orchestrated two-on-nothing with Dawson Pasternak as the two forwards outlasted Špunar to open the scoring.
Portland would return the favour just over two minutes later as Gabe Klassen (31) beat Braden Holt to even things up at one apiece as he found the back of the net following a back-door pass from Marek Alscher. Things would stay deadlocked for just a few more minutes until the Winterhawks earned their first advantage of the contest from Marcus Nguyen (19) as he batted home a loose puck.
The Winterhawks took the one-goal advantage into the second, outshooting Victoria 16-5 during the opening twenty.
Portland would carry that momentum into the second stanza as they earned their first powerplay of the game with Jaren Brinson sitting for a two minute holding the stick penalty. Victoria would successfully kill off the Brinson penalty, but Portland capitalized shortly after. This time it was James Stefan (40) highlighting a brilliant individual effort as he took the puck from end-to-end after receiving a lay-off pass from netminder, Jan Špunar, before slotting the puck through the five-hole of Holt and extending the Winterhawks lead two.
Their momentum would continue into the following moments as Josh Zakreski (17) added a single, while James Stefan (41) doubled his tally to make it 5-1 in favour of the road side. That would be the advantage that they carried into the third, as they outshot Victoria 24-7 during the middle twenty.
Midway through the third, Portland would strike again as Tyson Jugnauth (6) earned thew Winterhawks sixth of the night to take a commanding 6-1 lead. Victoria responded shorty after that as Casper Evensen Haugen (12) notched a powerplay tally as he earned his 15th point in his last 15 games. Dawson Pasternak and Tyson Laventure grabbed the assists on the goal as they both earned their second points on the evening.
That would be the final tally as Portland downed Victoria 6-2.