Rockets lucky to get to OT

Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet

Jackson Whistle falls back in making one of his 38 stops in the Rockets 4-3 overtime win over Victoria Saturday.

The Victoria Royals showed their teeth in game two of their best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal with the Kelowna Rockets.

The Royals were at their nasty best Saturday night and were the better team everywhere on the ice, but not on the scoreboard as the Rockets eked out a 4-3 overtime victory to gain a 2-0 lead in the series.

For the second straight night Tyson Baillie scored the game winner, this one coming 58 seconds into sudden death overtime just as a power-play had come to an end.

Baillie was on the receiving end of a pretty four-way passing play.

Nick Merkley found Madison Bowey at the point, who one-timed a pass to Leon Draisaitl in the right circle.

Draisaitl in turn send a one-timer to Baillie who tapped home the winner into a wide open cage.

"That's when our power-play is most effective when we're moving the puck and we're moving bodies to get to open ice," said Baillie.

"That's what our game plan was and that's what we did."

Baillie's goal ended a game the Rockets probably didn't deserve to win.

"They had a great game," said Rockets head coach Dan Lambert of the Royals.

"They were probably the better team. We were fortunate that Jackson Whistle played as well as he did. We got lucky in the end.

"I thought we had a lot of passengers tonight."

Despite the Royals dominance, it was the Rockets who found themselves up 3-0 late in the second period on goals from Baillie in the first, and Tomas Soustal and Gage Quinney in the second.

Despite being down 3-0 the Royals kept coming.

"I felt like we stopped playing, we stopped skating, we stopped making plays. I don't know if 'froze' was the right word, but we didn't play the way we can and the way we needed to," Lambert added.

A goaltending change after Quinney's tally seemed to give the Royals a little extra jump.

Royals head coach Dave Lowry said he replaced Coleman Vollrath with Justin Paulic to try and give his team a spark.

It seemed to work as Brandon Magee scored a lucky goal on a Royals power-play late in the second period to cut the deficit to two.

Alex Forsberg made it 3-2 seven minutes into the third on another Victoria power-play before Magee, who was a thorn in the Rockets side and the object of the fans ire all night, tied it with 1:34 left in regulation time.

Whistle made the initial stop at the edge of the crease, however, Magee swooped in, grabbed the rebound, circled around Whistle and tucked the puck home.

A checking from behind penalty by Chaz Reddekopp 30 seconds later gave the Rockets a decisive power-play that stretched into overtime and led directly to the game winner.

Whistle was the difference Saturday as he stopped 38 shots, may of them great chances.

Many of those came off the stick of Tyler Soy, who could easily have had three or four goals in the first period alone, if not for Whistle's heroics.

"I felt good. It was a lot different obviously than last night's game," said Whistle.

"I was more busy... not many quiet times. I was just trying to stay sharp and trust in myself and trust my game."

The goal by Magee ended Whistle's team record home ice shutout streak at 218 minutes and 2 seconds.

"I'll just have to start another (streak)," deadpanned Whistle when informed of the record.

The Rockets road record shutout streak is 224 minutes and 24 seconds set by Derek Yoemans back in 2005, when he blanked the Seattle Thunderbirds three straight times in Seattle.

But the game finished with more bad news for the Rockets on the injury front, as defenceman Josh Morrissey failed to return to the ice or the second period.

Morrissey, who returned Friday from a lower body injury, was shaken up Saturday when he was hit hard into the boards. He was slow to get up before slowly making his way to the bench.

Victoria lost the services of Greg Chase, who was handed a game misconduct just after Baillie's opening goal late in the first.

Apparently he was not wearing his mouth guard, and was then ejected when he tossed the mouth guard across the ice in the direction of the referee.

The series now shifts to Victoria for games three and four next Tuesday and Wednesday.

If a fifth game is needed, it would be played back at Prospera Place next Friday.