Kelowna Rockets edge visiting Victoria Royals in shootout

KELOWNA – The Kelowna Rockets defeated the Victoria Royals 3-2 in a shootout on Saturday night at Prospera Place to close out 2017.

Just 44 seconds in to the contest last night, Dec. 30, Leif Mattson (10) found the back of the net to get Kelowna on the board, but at 3:52 Victoria's Tyler Soy (16) evened things up at 1-1. The score remained 1-1 heading in to the middle frame.

Kyle Topping (14) scored on a Rockets power play to regain Kelowna's lead at 6:23 and Kelowna led 2-1 after 40 minutes.

With 5:04 remaining Matthew Phillips (28) scored to once again even things up for the Royals. Tied at 2-2 after 60 minutes, the game needed extra time.

The overtime period solved nothing and a shootout was needed.

The shootout went as follows:

Kole Lind: Miss

Dante Hannoun: Goal

Nolan Foote: Goal

Matthew Phillips: Goal

Carsen Twarynski: Goal

Tyler Soy: Miss

Jack Cowell: Miss

Jeff De Wit: Miss

Leif Mattson: Goal

Eric Florchuk: Miss

Roman Basran's record improves to 5-2-0-0 after making 36 saves on 38 shots as Victoria outshot Kelowna 38-32.

Kelowna’s record improves to 23-11-2-1.

Kelowna was without Captain Cal Foote and Assistant Captain Dillon Dube as they are in Buffalo, NY taking part in the World Junior Championships for Team Canada. With Dube captaining the squad, they finished 3-0-0-1 in round robin play after defeating Denmark 8-0 on Saturday afternoon. Foote notched three assists in that contest. Team Canada clinched first place in their group in the round robin.

The Rockets are back in action in the new year when they host the Tri-City Americans on Wednesday, Jan. 3.