Chiefs leave Victoria down two games in WHL playoff-opening series
VICTORIA, B.C. – The Spokane Chiefs are returning home in a huge hole, looking to find a way out after a 4-3 loss to the Victoria Royals on Saturday night which leaves the Western Hockey League club down 2-0 in its best-of-7 opening-round playoff series.
Jack Walker led the No. 1-seeded Royals with a pair of goals, much to the delight of the 6,025 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Victoria has won 15 straight games and has not lost at home in regulation time since Dec. 13. The Chiefs need to hold court at the Arena for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
“It’s not the first time we’ve been through that. A few years ago we were in Vancouver and lost the first two games and found a way to win four straight. It’s all about momentum,” said Chiefs head coach Don Nachbaur, referring to a series in 2012.
“Our guys have a belief. We weren’t as sharp as we needed to be and give them all the credit. They deserved to win the game. We gave up some goals that probably we should have had a save on at the end of the day.
“But we had a chance at the end of the game, it was right on our tape late and we couldn’t find the handle. They did their part, winning their two home games, we need to find a way to do the same at home.”
The Royals were without captain Joe Hicketts because of injury in Game 1 and Ryan Gagnon, two key pieces to the Victoria defence. Gagnon was suspended for a major and game misconduct on Friday. Hicketts had a goal and two assists in the opener.
“We saw that they had a big hole in their back end and we should have done some things differently in my mind, but when you play back-to-back you lose a little energy. It was a physical game (Friday),” Nachbaur said.
Hicketts was hurt attempting to hit Kailer Yamamoto late in Friday’s game.
“Kyle’s lucky he doesn’t have a knee injury, but the guy who delivered the check is out because of that,” Nachbaur said.
Walker scored his second of the game late in the second period to snap a 2-all tie, darting down his off-wing and picking the far corner, low on goalie Lasse Petersen’s blocker side. Tyler Soy added some insurance at 6:31 of the third period as his deflected the puck out of midair.
Jacob Cardiff put the Chiefs on the scoreboard first, popping a rebound by goaltender Coleman Vollrath at 9:56 of first period. Petersen made two spectacular saves off Alex Forsberg and Matt Phillips.
Victoria evened it at 1 on a centering pass by Walker for Soy that deflected off a Spokane defender at 12:32 of the first. Petersen allowed a bad goal off a horrible angle by Jared Dmytriw less than 2 minutes later.
Hudson Elynuik, early in the second to tie it 2, and Dominic Zwerger, at 17:54 of the third to close it to 4-3, had the other Spokane goals.
Vladimir Bobylev had three assists for the Royals for the second straight night and leads the league in playoff points.