The Victoria Royals fell 5-4 in overtime to the CHL’s sixth ranked Portland Winterhawks on Saturday night at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Royals’ rookie defenceman Nolan Bentham scored his first career WHL goal. Bentham, a native of Victoria, BC, now has one goal and two assists in 50 games played this season. The sixteen-year-old was drafted in the first round, 13th overall, by Victoria in the 2018 WHL draft.
This season, each of the three match-ups between Victoria and Portland have been decided in overtime. The Royals won the first contest 2-1, and the Winterhawks took the second meeting 6-5.
Victoria forward Kaid Oliver tallied two goals and has now recorded four goals in three games against Portland this season. Oliver has ties to Portland, having lived in the city from 2008-2012, where he played minor hockey for the Junior Winterhawks program.
Victoria had four players return to the line-up tonight.Ty Yoder, Jacob Herauf, and Kaid Oliver all made returns from injury, having sat out 10, seven, and two games respectively. Carson Miller also made his return to action, after he served a two-game suspension.
Although they had three players return to their line-up tonight, Victoria was still missing four regular players due to injury: starting goaltender Shane Farkas, defencemen Noah Lamb, and forwards Graeme Bryks and Riley Gannon.
The Royals will conclude their four-game regular season series against the Portland Winterhawks today at the Moda Center. Puck drop is at 5:00 p.m.
