Credit: Wayne Beaton

By Marlon Martens

'Hawks Capitalize On Mistakes To win 6-5

Royals Come Up Short in Back & Forth Affair

Apr 3, 2024 | 12:45 AM

Credit: Wayne Beaton

“There were stretches where we played really good hockey…we just ended up making some critical mistakes.” – HC James Patrick

The Victoria Royals played their hearts out, but came up one goal short in a 6-5 loss to the visiting Portland Winterhawks Tuesday night, who take a 3-0 strangle hold lead of the best of seven Western Conference Quarterfinals series.

The Royals not only out shot the ‘Hawks, twice held leads, owned the majority of play for long stretches, and won more face offs, but costly turnovers or mistakes were capitalized on by the opportunistic, and veteran CHL Top 10 team.

“They are so skilled that if you give them two on one chances, they’re going to have a real good chance to score, which they obviously pounced on our mistakes.”

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Victoria was strong out of the gate each frame, scoring early in each period, and twice held leads, but Portland would respond, scoring late in frames, taking a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes, and 4-3 after 40.

“We played a really good first period, but in the last four minutes we give up two goals…you know they’re going to get their chances, but we ended up getting some defenseman caught, and made it really tough on ourselves.”

In the third, the ‘Hawks broke a 4-4 deadlock with a pair going up by two for the first time in the game 6-4, before the Royals got one back in the final minute on the power play with the extra man, but ran out of time to complete the comeback.

Credit: Wayne Beaton

Edmonton Oilers signed forward James Stefan led the way offensively for Portland, in on four goals with the hat trick and assist, while Sharks prospect Luca Cagnoni added three helpers from the back end.

Arizona Coyote’s 5^th round pick Justin Kipkie helped architect three of Victoria’s goals with a single and two helpers, overager Tyson Laventure had a goal and assist, while singles came of the sticks of Teydon Trembecky, Casper Haugen-Evensen and Tanner Scott.

Credit: Wayne Beaton

Between the pipes, Braden Holt suffered the loss making 26 saves, while Jan Spunar stopped 30 for the win.

Both clubs went 1 for 3 on their respective power plays.

The Royals are now down 3-0 in the series, finding themselves in an elimination game, and now must win the rest of the way to keep their post season alive.

“All we can think about is one game, nothing else matters.” said Patrick post game,

“Right now it’s not whether we’re thinking about coming back from being three down. It’s just, can we win a hockey game? Can we play 60 minutes? We played some real good hockey, I would say in game one and game three, but we have to play as good as we can for our 60 minutes. And that’s what we have to do…that’s the bottom line.”

Puck drop at 7pm Wednesday night.

Scott Celebrates. Credit: Wayne Beaton