NEAL’S NOTES: ROYALS FORCE A GAME 7 TUESDAY
With all momentum going away from them in the last three games, the Victoria Royals pushed the pace in game 6 and forced a seventh game with Kelowna in their second round series. The Royals held on for a 3-2 victory Sunday in Kelowna.
The Rockets earned the first road win of the series Friday night with a 4-1 decision for their third straight win of the series to put the Royals on the ropes. But for the third straight game, the visitors struck first when Jack Walker got a brilliant pass from Joe Hicketts and went in alone and scored on Michael Herringer. The goal is Walker’s eighth of the playoffs and first since game 2 against the Rockets. Then the Royals’ power play connected for the first time in four games. Walker took a one-time shot from the right wing that went into a crowd in front of Herringer. When the puck landed, Tyler Soy pounced on it and scored his first of the series and sixth of the playoffs. The first period Sunday was one of the Royals’ best in the series.
In the second period, a Rockets’ turnover led to a 3-0 Victoria lead. Alex Forsberg stole the puck, made a nifty move on Joe Gatenby one-on-one, before sliding the puck to Regan Nagy for his second goal of the series. Nagy had a real solid sixth game Sunday and was a very noticeable figure on the ice for Victoria. The Rockets got on the board four-on-four with 17 seconds left in the second period when Cal Foote went after his own rebound and scored his first of the playoffs. The Rockets cut into the deficit in the third when Justin Kirkland fired home his sixth of the playoffs after a turnover by Soy in the Royals’ zone. Kirkland has scored a third period goal in three straight games. The Royals, though, would earn the win and out-shot the Rockets 36-27.
Coleman Vollrath was sharp again in goal for Victoria with 25 saves, while Michael Herringer was solid once more for the Rockets in a losing cause.
The Royals went 1-for-7 on the power play and the Rockets were 0-for-3.
Tuesday night will be the first game 7 in franchise history for the Royals, while the Rockets will be playing in a game 7 for the second straight series. It starts at 7:05pm Pacific at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
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There will be another game 7 Tuesday in Red Deer when the Rebels and Pats decide a winner of their Eastern Conference Semi-Final. The home side has won all six games after the Pats picked up a 5-1 victory Sunday to tie the series at three. That was in response to the 5-1 loss at Red Deer in game 5.
A crowd of 6484 at the Brandt Centre in the Saskatchewan Capital saw Jared McAmmond open the scoring from the hosts in the first period. Jake DeBrusk responded for the Rebels with his fifth of the post-season. But the Pats scored three in the second period to blow the game open. Connor Hobbs, Cole Sanford and Lane Zablocki provided those goals and Colby Williams added another in the third period to round out the scoring. For Sanford, that is his seventh goal of the playoffs.
The Pats also out-shot the Rebels 40-21. The winner of Tuesday’s game 7 faces Brandon for the Eastern Conference Championship.
