By suffocating a high-scoring attack, the Victoria Royals breathed life into their Western Hockey League playoff series with the Portland Winterhawks.
Cashing in on two early power plays, the Royals beat the visiting Winterhawks 2-1 on Monday in Game 3 of their Western Hockey League playoff series.
Portland leads the best-of-7 conference semifinal series 2-1 with Game 4 at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Arena in Victoria, British Columbia.
Monday’s result means Game 5 will be played on Thursday at the Moda Center in Portland.
Victoria’s victory ended Portland’s win streak at 13 games dating back to the regular season. The Winterhawks lost for only the second time in their last 36 games.
Taylor Leier kept Victoria from handing Portland its first shutout of the season when he scored with 13.6 seconds left in the game.
Brandon Magee opened the scoring 2:49 into the game, scoring 23 seconds into Victoria’s first power play.
Austin Carroll made it 2-0 9:24 into the game as the Royals cashed in from the first two Winterhawks penalties of the night.
Five of the seven Royals goals so far in the series have come on the power play.
Victoria goalie Patrik Polivka stopped 38 of 39 shots and limited Portland to few second chances.
The Winterhawks gained some momentum in the second period, outshooting the Royals 14-6 and owning much of the territorial play. But most of Portland’s shots came from the perimeter, and the Winterhawks missed the net on some of their more promising chances.
While Victoria cashed in on its first two power plays, Portland had only 2:19 of power-play time through the first two periods. On the night, Portland was 0 for 4 on the power play, but its only full two-minute advantage came late in the third period. The Winterhawks killed off the last six Royals power plays of the night.
After Portland scored 14 goals in the first two games, the Winterhawks could only break through when skating six on five with goalie Brendan Burke on the bench and time running out. Leier put the puck through Polivka off a feed from Derrick Pouliot.
The Winterhawks won the face-off at center ice after their goal, and created a scramble in front of the Victoria net but were unable to pouch the puck past Polivka and force overtime.
Burke finished with 25 saves in Portland’s first loss in seven playoff games this season.
