With Kieffer Bellows joining Jake Gricius and Lane Gilliss on the injury list prior to the game Wednesday night in Portland and Ryan Hughes leaving after the game was 20 minutes old, the Winterhawks were down to just eight forwards and were forced to use two defensemen heavily as forwards.
Their opponent was in no mood to take to take it easy on them though, as they themselves were down a key forward in Noah Gregor and three defensemen (Mitchell Prowse, Chaz Reddekopp and Kade Jensen).
In the end, Victoria used two goals in the span of 48 seconds midway through the third period to win 4-2. Portland had just come back to tie the game on a goal from Cody Glass and despite 13 shots on Victoria goalie Griffen Outhouse in the final frame, were not able to solve him again.
Matthew Phillips led the way for the Royals with a goal and two assists and rookie Matthew Smith took advantage of an increased role with his first career two-point game.
This looked like it might be a barn burner early as two goals were scored on the same Portland power play in the first period. First, a misplayed puck in the Victoria zone by defenseman Dennis Cholowski led to a two-on-one rush for Tyler Soy and Phillips. The latter slipped a pass over the stick of Henri Jokiharju and right to Soy for the tap in.
Then, on the same man advantage opportunity, Jokiharju’s point shot went wide of the Royals net, caromed off the boards and Skyler McKenzie backhanded a shot by Outhouses’ glove. McKenzie now has 34 this year and five in his last three games. He has 14 goals in his last 13 games.
Phillips then gave Victoria another lead as he came out of the corner and found a fresh Smith coming off the bench. Smith powered a shot by Portland goalie Cole Kehler with 4:54 left in the second period.
A third period which saw the two teams trade a total of 25 shots broke in favor of the Royals.
After Cody Glass took a pass from Jokiharju in the left slot, he waited and then beat Outhouse to tie the game and give him 25 goals this season, the Royals answered with two straight markers, providing the difference. A rare poor decision in his own zone by Jokiharju ended up right on the stick of Lane Zablocki who found a wide open Tanner Kaspick in front. The former Brandon Wheat Kings forward wired a shot by Kehler’s glove for the 3-2 lead.
Then just 48 ticks later, Phillips blew by Brendan De Jong after the Carolina Hurricanes prospect gave him too much room and he slipped the puck through Kehler’s pads for his 31st this season.
The Winterhawks would get no closer and drop the first game of the four-game season series to the Royals. The Winterhawks will play host to the high-flying Swift Current Broncos on Friday for their next game. They had two great looks late as Joachim Blichfeld and McKenzie each had looks back door at wide open nets and both missed the frame.
Jokiharju and Cholowski each had two assists in the game to lead the Winterhawks. Cholowski has four assists in his last three games while Jokiharju has three in his last two.
Portland’s injury woes up front have had a bigger impact due to the team trading away Bronson Sharp to Everett, Brad Ginnell to Kootenay and Ilijah Colina and prospect Connor Bowie to Prince George earlier this month. With four forwards going out and only one (Lukas MacKenzie from Red Deer) coming in, the Winterhawks have only 12 healthy, non-affiliated forwards.
Hughes played sparingly in the first period, before leaving altogether. Gilliss was the only one listed on the WHL’s Weekly Report and he was listed as out day-to-day.
For the Royals, all but one of their absences are due to the injury bug, Jensen is the lone healthy player out as he is serving the first of a four-game suspension.
Kehler stopped 29 of 33 in the loss. This was his first game with a save percentage below 0.923 in five tries. Outhouse turned away 28 of 30, getting the win.
Portland’s power play went 2/3, while the Royals were 0/3. Victoria next heads to Langley for a contest with the Giants on Friday.
