Goalscorers just seem to find ways.
Brandon Magee certainly has located his as the Victoria Royals' veteran collected his fifth goal in three games in Friday night’s 2-1 overtime win over the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Magee snapped home the tying goal and then watched Logan Nelson bag his fifth game-winner of the season as the Royals bounced back from an early 1-0 deficit to record a third straight victory.
“I saw a lane to the net and took it,” Magee said of his goal, in which he stepped out from the sideboards and buried the puck behind Thunderbirds goaltender Danny Mumaugh in the second period.
“I’m just trying to put pucks on the net and trying to keep it simple.”
Magee’s goal-scoring prowess has stepped to the forefront thi week. After scoring in Victoria’s season-opener back in September the Edmonton native was mired in a lengthy drought until he bagged two on the road in both Seattle and Portland last weekend.
“I just wanted to step up my play personally. But it’s a big help with Steven (Hodges) back in the lineup,” added Magee. “He’s pretty easy to play with. He gets me pucks and we have good chemistry together.”
There’s far more to it than that as Magee has nestled into a nice little streak, scoring in each of the team’s last three games, all wins, including two straight in overtime.
“With Mags, it was only a matter of time before he was going to break out of it,” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry. “It’s amazing what happens when you start shooting the puck and hitting the net.
“When you start doing the little things again, opportunities present themselves and he’s been able to capitalize, which is nice.”
What might be even more important is the Royals bounced back from an early 1-0 deficit as Branden Troock tipped in Kevin Woolf’s point shot just 1:32 into the opening period at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
“We don’t score a lot of goals and we have to make sure we don’t give up a lot of quality chances,” said Lowry. “Tonight, our guys did a good job and when we did have a breakdown Coleman made a save.”
That would be goaltender Coleman Vollrath who collected his third straight win.
Nelson finished it off when he buried Ben Walker’s feed from behind the Seattle net.
“Tonight we stuck with it for 60-plus minutes and we were rewarded in the end,” said Nelson.
ROYALS NOTES: Prospect Matthew Campese was named to Team West on Friday for the 2014 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Cape Breton, N.S.
