The Victoria Royals – behind goalie Patrik Polivka’s stellar performance – turned back the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-1 on Tuesday night in Victoria, British Columbia.

Polivka stopped several good T-Birds scoring chances in every period to give his team a chance to win. He finished with 26 saves on 27 shots and his record is now 25-11-1-2.

This was the first game of back-to-back games in Victoria. The teams meet again at 7:05 tonight in Victoria.

Victoria (29-19-1-4) went ahead 1-0 when Jamie Crooks scored at 12:19 of the first period off an assist from Logan Fisher.

Alex Gogolev put the Royals ahead 2-0 at 19:15 of the first. Brandon Magee had the only assist on the goal.

Victoria outshot Seattle 11-8 in the first period.

Seattle (19-30-4-1) cut the Royals lead to one goal early in the second period with a power-play goal. Roberts Lipsbergs redirected a pass from Alexander Delnov to Jerret Smith at the left point. Smith crossed the puck along the blue line to Shea Theodore at the right point. Theodore one-timed Smith’s pass and beat Polivka over the glove.

The Royals got the two-goal lead back at 12:41 of the second when Steven Hodges scored. Ben Walker and Kolton Dixon had the assists.

Seattle outshot Victoria 10-9 in the second period but the Royals led 20-18 in total shots after two periods.

The T-Birds earned a power play with just less than two minutes left in the game. They pulled goalie Brandon Glover for an extra attacker to make it a 6-on-4 power play but were not able to convert. Joel Hicketts scored an unassisted shorthanded empty-net goal to ice the game for the Royals.

The T-Birds outshot the Royals 9-5 in the third period and 27-25 in the game.

Glover stopped 21 of 24 shots and his record is now 18-22-4-1.

SCORING SUMMARY

First period – 1, Victoria, Crooks 24 (Fisher), 12:19. 2, Victoria, Gogolev 20 (Magee), 19:15. Penalties – Kambeitz, Sea (hooking), 8:11. Delnov, Sea (roughing), 15:06.

Second period – 3, Seattle, Theodore 13 (Smith, Lipsbergs), 1:46 (pp). 4, Victoria, Hodges 21 (B. Walker, Dixon), 12:41. Penalties – Crunk, Vic (double minor-roughing), :25. Honey, Sea (slashing), :25. Kambeitz, Sea (goaltender interference), 4:39. Kanzig, Vic (roughing), 10:38.

Third period – 5, Victoria, Hicketts 2, 19:09 (sh/en). Penalties – Gagnon, Vic (checking to the head), 13:14. Kanzig, Vic (tripping), 18:05. Sanvido, Sea (slashing), 19:23. Kambeitz, Sea (10-minute misconduct), 19:23.

Shots on goal – Seattle 8-10-9 27, Victoria 11-9-5 25. Goalies – Seattle, Glover 24 shots-21 saves (18-22-4-1); Victoria, Polivka 27-26 (25-11-1-2). Power plays – Seattle 1-4; Victoria 0-2. A – 3,907. Referees – Ryan Benbow, Pat Smith. Linesmen – Riley Friesen, Kirk Van Helvoirt.