Hitmen 7 Royals 6 OT

Pavel Padakin scored his second goal of the night on a breakaway 1:26 into sudden death lifting the Calgary Hitmen to a 7-6 overtime win over the Victoria Royals Wednesday night at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.

The victory completed a monumental comeback for the Hitmen who trailed 5-1 just past the midway mark of the second period.

Jaynen Rissling, Chase Lang, Brady Brassart, Adam Tambellini and Mike Winther also scored for Calgary.  It was Wither’s goal that tied the game with just less than eight minutes remaining in the third period.

Greg Chase chipped in a pair of assists for Calgary who earned a split of this back-to-back set with the Royals on Vancouver Island. 

Ben Walker scored twice for Victoria who got singles from Austin Carroll, Alex Blomqvist, Logan Fisher, and Steven Hodges.

The Royals outshot Calgary 44-35 with Mack Shields picking up the win in goal.

The victory improves the Hitmen record to 32-15-3-3, good for third place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with 72 points.

Calgary now head to Vancouver to play the Giants Friday night before wrapping up their BC road trip Saturday in Kamloops.

Calgary Hitmen 7 at Victoria Royals 6 OT
Wednesday, February 5, 2014 - Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena - Victoria, BC

Calgary 0 3 3 1 - 7
Victoria 3 2 1 0 - 6

1st Period
1, Victoria, Walker 21 (Brown, Hicketts), 7:28 (PP).
2, Victoria, Carroll 26 (Walker, Hicketts), 16:40 (PP).
3, Victoria, Blomqvist 19 (Fransoo, Fushimi), 19:46 (PP).
Penalties-Virtanen Cal (roughing), 4:30; Hodges Vic (interference, roughing), 4:30; Rissling Cal (cross checking), 7:12; Roach Cal (roughing), 16:09; Chase Cal (roughing), 18:21.

2nd Period
4, Calgary, Padakin 18 (Shields), 1:36.
5, Victoria, Fisher 5 (Crunk, Skapski), 3:20.
6, Victoria, Walker 22 (Carroll), 10:52.
7, Calgary, Rissling 7 (Chase, Tambellini), 14:06 (PP).
8, Calgary, Lang 7 (Padakin, Draude), 18:19.
Penalties-Brassart Cal (hooking), 7:37; Brown Vic (roughing), 14:00.

3rd Period
9, Victoria, Hodges 14 (Magee), 4:19.
10, Calgary, Brassart 24 (Roach, Malenstyn), 5:03.
11, Calgary, Tambellini 5 (Rissling, Roach), 6:36 (PP).
12, Calgary, Winther 6 (Chase, Brassart), 12:23.
Penalties-Fransoo Vic (boarding), 1:40; Hodges Vic (hooking), 6:22; Lang Cal (tripping), 7:18; Walker Vic (slashing), 15:02.

OT Period
13, Calgary, Padakin 19   1:26. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal
Calgary 11-7-16-1-35. Victoria 15-16-12-1-44.

Power Play Opportunities
Calgary 2 / 5; Victoria 3 / 5.

Goalies
Calgary, Shields 14-2-0-0 (44 shots-38 saves). Victoria, Vollrath 17-5-1-1 (35 shots-28 saves).

A-4,413
Referees-Adam Griffiths (36), Pat Smith (12).
Linesmen-Riley Friesen (76), Kirk Van Helvoirt (107).