Recap | Mar. 2 | Royals (4) @ Winterhawks (5)
Portland, OR – For the fourth and final time during the 2023-24 regular season, the Victoria Royals (28-24-5-4) and the Portland Winterhawks (41-15-2-1) met in a Pacific Northwest matchup. It was the second game of back-to-back outings for both sides, with the Royals prevailing 6-4 over Tri City on Friday, and Portland shutting out Regina 3-0. The Royals and Winterhawks have become familiar foes over the past eight days, as this will be their third meeting over that span. Braden Holt returned to the crease for Victoria, earning his second start in as many nights, while Jan Špunar also made his second consecutive start, aiming for another strong performance after registering a 15-save shutout against the Pats on Friday. With a Royals win, and a Tri City loss, Victoria would clinch a playoff berth for the first time since the 2019-20 season.
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It was Portland opening the scoring in front of their home crowd at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, with Josh Zakreski (18) beating Braden Holt just over six minutes in. His 18th goal of the season came to fruition through a determined effort as he dashed towards the net and pounced on a rebound that originated from a Diego Buttazzoni shot. Zakreski made no mistake in lifting the puck into the back of the net.
Victoria had a chance to respond in quick order as Gabe Klassen sat for two minutes, finding himself in the box for a two-minute tripping call. However, the league’s fourth-best penalty-killing unit gained the upper hand by successfully killing off the first powerplay of the contest.
Victoria found an equalizer midway through the period. Tyson Laventure (27) parked himself in front of the net of Jan Špunar and made his presence known as he deflected a Dawson Pasternak snap shot past his glove. Drawing the secondary assist on the play was 15-year-old Keaton Verhoeff, who tallied his first career WHL point in the process.
It was looking like the game would head into the first intermission deadlocked at ones, but a late penalty to Nate Danielson sent the Royals to the man-advantage for the second time on the evening. On the ensuing powerplay, it was Cole Reschny (19) notching his second goal in as many nights. The 16-year-old made quick work on the powerplay as Victoria needed only nine seconds of specialty unit time before finding the back of the net. Casper Evensen Haugen tallied the primary assist, while Dawson Pasternak earned his second point of the evening with the secondary helper.
The late goal from Reschny sent the Royals into the intermission with a 2-1 lead. Shots were deadlocked at 11 apiece during the opening twenty.
The middle stanza wouldn’t provide the same level of goal-scoring as was seen in the first, as neither side could find a way through Holt or Špunar. Each side found themselves shorthanded on one occasion, with Reggie Newman and Josh Davies each sitting for a two-minute tripping call, but the penalty-killing units were perfect in this period. Portland outshot Victoria 16-4 during the period.
Victoria would extend their lead to two goals early in the third period as Casper Evensen Haugen (13) picked up his second point of the night. The Norwegian made no mistake in burying a perfect back-door pass from Tanner Scott. Scott stole the puck from the Winterhawks defender before finding Haugen alone to the left of Špunar, and Haugen propelled the puck into the yawning cage.
The Winterhawks would respond in quick order as Josh Zakreski (19) tallied his second of the evening. The forward took the puck from his own blue line after receiving a lay-off pass from Marek Alscher and did the rest as he dashed into the Royals’ end before making a quick move at the faceoff dot and taking a sneaky shot, which evaded the reach of Holt to pull Portland within one.
Moments later, Portland pulled level. This time it was Jack O’Brien (20) finding the back of the net as he took the puck over the blue line and unleashed a wrist shot that flew over the shoulder of Holt and off the back crossbar, sending the Winterhawks fans into a frenzy.
While the momentum had swung in the direction of Portland, the Royals wouldn’t give up. Just 82 seconds after the equalizer, Victoria would restore their lead. It was Cole Reschny (20) earning his second of the evening to make it 4-3 in favor of the road side. Reschny found himself alone in the slot after receiving a pass from Tyson Laventure; he made no mistake in picking his corner and beating Špunar with a powerful wrist shot.
With the game dwindling down to the final stretch, the Royals earned a powerplay as Nate Danielson found himself in the box for the second time that night. On the ensuing chance, Portland was able to turn their fortune, with Marcus Nguyen (20) scoring on a short-handed breakaway, leveling the game at four apiece.
That would be the final entry in regulation as the Royals and Winterhawks would head to overtime deadlocked at 4-4.
It would take just 27 seconds of overtime for the Winterhawks to grab the edge as James Stefan (42) earned his team-leading tally with a wrist shot from the top of the face-off dot, narrowly defeating the Royals 5-4.