The Victoria Royals opened their regular season tonight at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre with a 5-4 win over the Tri-City Americans.
Royals’ veteran Tanner Scott opened the scoring with the first goal of the Royals season just before the halfway mark of the first period. Followed by rookie Simon Pohludka who gave the Royals a 2-0 lead at 11:44 of the first period with his first WHL goal.
The Royals took the 2-0 lead into the second period. Five minutes into the period, Brandon Whynott scored the Americans first goal of the night. The Royals answered back with a goal from Logan Pickford 40 seconds later to regain the two goal lead. The Americans got goals from Jake Sloan at 11:40 of the second period, and Brandon Whynott at 19:45 to tie the game at 3 going into the third period.
The Americans pulled ahead seven minutes into the third period with a goal from Cruz Pavao at 5:38. Keaton Verhoeff scored his first WHL goal to tie the game at four and force overtime.
Keaton Verhoeff scored his second goal of the game to win it for the Royals at 4:16 of overtime, assisted by Cole Reschny and Tanner Scott.
