Owen Martin scores game-winner in overtime, Spokane Chiefs edge Victoria 2-1

Owen Martin hasn’t put up as gaudy goal-scoring numbers as he would like so far this season, but he has a flair for the dramatic.

Martin scored the game-winner on a breakaway goal early in overtime – his second OT goal of the season – and the Spokane Chiefs beat the Victoria Royals 2-1 in a Western Hockey League game at the Arena on Saturday.

The team announced a sellout – the highest WHL attendance so far this season at 10,435 tickets sold.

“I kinda took a look at the goalie, he was kind of outside of the net,” Martin said. “I gave him a fake and went backhand. Got lucky I guess.”

It was the winger’s fourth goal in 20 games this season. Martin scored 13 and 14 goals the past two seasons, and he and the team expected he would take a step up this year in the absence of all five of the team’s leading scorers moving on.

“I think it’s kind of been tough for me,” Martin said. “Obviously I want to produce more than I am. But if I’m doing my part helping the team win games, that’s what matters most.”

“The expectations for everybody are high,” Chiefs coach Brad Lauer said. “Marty, with the start that he had, the numbers aren’t there for him like we thought they might, but that’s the way the game is sometimes. You gotta work your way out of a little adversity.”

Linus Vieillard made 26 saves.

“He’s doing the things he needs to do, working hard in practice,” Lauer said of the German import. “He’s making the saves that we need and giving us a chance to be in games every night.”

The Chiefs (12-10-0-0) got the game’s first power play when Victoria was whistled for too many men at 5:50 of the first period, but they gave it away 55 seconds later when Cohen Harris was sent off for hooking on a partial breakaway.

But the Chiefs did score the game’s first goal. With 1:38 left in the period, Coco Armstong got open on the left wing and snapped a wrist shot stick side past Victoria goalie Ethan Eskit for his seventh goal of the season – matching his career season-high from last season.

“He’s kind of been our Swiss Army knife,” Lauer said. “Most of his goals this year have come from like 3 or 4 feet, so he’s doing the things we need him to do.”

The second period went scoreless, though Mathis Preston came close, ringing one off the left pipe midway through the frame.

Victoria (9-11-2-1) tied it up 5 1/2 minutes into the third. Vieillard made a save on a shot from the point by defenseman Henry Peterson, but it left him in a sitting position. The rebound went to Caleb Matthews in the slot, who dumped it into a yawning net for his third goal of the season.

“(Victoria) is a good team,” Lauer said. “They play hard; they play tight. It’s a good game for our group to understand how we need to play and that we need to play for 60 minutes.”