It was as exhausting as it was eventually decisive.
The Victoria Royals were eliminated from the Western Hockey League playoffs Sunday in an extraordinary game that was the longest ever played in WHL and Canadian Hockey League history.
Cal Babych scored on a breakaway at 11:36 of the fifth overtime period to give the Everett Silvertips a draining 3-2 victory at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
It was the first game in WHL history to go to five overtimes.
When the game ended, both squads received an appreciative and rousing ovation from the fans. The announced attendance at the start of the game was 4,613 and a large portion stayed to the bitter end, spending five hours and 49 minutes of total game time in the building. Few fans in hockey history have spent as much time watching a single game. It started shortly after 2 p.m. and ended just before 8 p.m.
The Western Conference top-seed Silvertips clinched the best-of-seven opening-round series 4-2 over the eighth-seed Royals and advanced to play the Seattle Thunderbirds in the second round. The lengths it took to get there became the real story.
The 151-minute, 36-second game eclipsed the former WHL longest-game record of 136:56 set in a 3-2 Kamloops win against Kootenay in 2003 and also the former CHL record of 146:31 established between Victoriaville and Hull in a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League game in 1999.
(The CHL is the national body which incorporates the three major-junior leagues: WHL, QMJHL and Ontario Hockey League).
“We were running on emotions . . . we battled right to the end,” said graduating 20-year-old Royals forward Carter Folk, whose final game in the WHL was literally one for the books.
Folk was bodychecking, forechecking and attacking right to the end.
“Gatorade . . . salt . . .,” he said, about how the players kept their bodies going through the marathon of hockey, which was the equivalent of playing nearly three full consecutive games in one day.
Neither team could have asked more of their players, physically, mentally or emotionally.
“We put it all out there . . . blood, sweat and tears,” said graduating 20-year-old Victoria captain Ryan Gagnon, a five-year veteran Royals defenceman, who played his final WHL game.
The effort of the goaltenders was truly epic, with Victoria’s Griffen Outhouse facing 75 shots and Everett’s Carter Hart 66.
“It was definitely tiring but everyone was pushing through. Everyone battled for each other,” said Outhouse.
“I couldn’t have been prouder of a team. I wanted to do it [backstop a victory] for them, especially for the 20-year-olds in our room.”
Those sentiments were echoed by the Victoria head coach.
“It would have been nicer to be on the other side of that scoreline. But I couldn’t have been prouder of my guys and I couldn’t have asked for anything more from them,” said Dave Lowry. “But you have to face defeat before you become a champion.”
And sometimes you have to take the long route, quite literally, to get there.
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There was also a super-long hockey game Sunday night at Archie Browning Centre, where the Victoria Cougars played the Campbell River Storm into a fourth overtime. The Storm won 4-3 to claim the VIJHL crown.
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Earlier story
The Victoria Royals have advanced to the second round of the WHL playoffs the past three seasons but no further, hence their 2017 post-season slogan “Unfinished Business.”
But even that second-round benchmark is in jeopardy this year.
The Royals must win against the Everett Silvertips this afternoon, in a 2 p.m. home matinée, in Game 6, and again Tuesday in a potential Game 7 in Everett in order to get to the second phase.
But give the eighth-seed Royals credit for even being in this position against the Western Conference top-seed Silvertips in their best-of-seven opening-round series. Everett leads 3-2, but it could just as easily have been 3-2 the other way. The Royals have given the conference champions all they can handle. It was a one-shot game in overtime in Game 5 on Friday as the series hung in a precarious balance.
That’s when the Royals re-learned a basic sports lesson: Play to the whistle.
Two Royals put up their arms to indicate offside, but that’s not their job. Even some of the Silvertips appeared to hesitate, perhaps expecting a stoppage.
But an alert Eetu Tuulola played through and shot the winning goal to give the Silvertips the series lead.
It can be that fine a line in the playoffs.
“From my angle, it looked offside. But viewing it later, it was the correct call,” Victoria GM Cam Hope said.
The Royals still have a lifeline. It’s called Game 6. Then there’s possibly another. It’s called Game 7. The beauty of the playoffs is you control your own destiny.
“Somebody has to be up 3-2 in a series so tight,” Hope said.
“It reminds me of last year, when we went into Kelowna down 3-2 in the [second-round] series and won that Game 6.”
Although everybody remembers 0.2 and how that eventual Game 7 ended last year. It’s the main part of this year’s “Unfinished Business” tagline.
“The guys were deflated after that overtime goal Friday in Everett, but that’s part of the game, and the demeanour now in our room is one of excitement as we focus on Game 6,” Royals captain Ryan Gagnon said.
Today could be the final game in 20-year-old Gagnon’s fine five-year Royals blueline career.
“Our backs are against the wall and we are going to leave it all out there,” he said.
There is no other option.
“The playoffs are about staying in the moment,” Royals coach Dave Lowry said.
And staying out of the box. The difference in the series has been Everett’s eight power-play goals.
“We have to keep it five-on-five. Their power play has hurt us,” Lowry said.
Meanwhile, it does not bode well for key injured Royals Jack Walker, Scott Walford and Ethan Price for the rest of the series.
“We’ll see how they are. I have no indication they are ready to come back,” Hope said.
It would be an especially melancholic way for 20-year-old Walker to end his Royals career after five seasons of puncturing defences all over the WHL with his speed.
The winner of the Victoria-Everett series will advance to a second-round series against Mathew Barzal and the Seattle Thunderbirds, who swept the Tri City Americans 4-0.
