With the playoffs quickly approaching, the Victoria Salmon Kings were looking to pile up some wins during their last home game series against the Idaho Steelheads last weekend.

In the standings before the series started, the Salmon Kings sat comfortably in the third spot behind Idaho and the West Division-leading Alaska Aces. But with this four-game home ice series, the Salmon Kings were looking to move up into second position in the West Division so that, come playoff time, Victoria would have home ice advantage against their Idaho rivals.

Victoria got off to a slow start in the first of the four-game series last Wednesday night, March 18, even though they were able to get on the board first. Salmon Kings captain Wes Goldie scored his 46th goal of the season off a short-handed rush by backhanding a quick pass from teammate Patrick Coulombe past Idaho goaltender Matt Climie early in the first period.

“I think we were lackadaisical, we never had any jump from the start of the game,” said Salmon Kings coach and general manager Mark Morrison. “Goldie got us a quick goal and we never really fed off of that. We just let the game sit there. I think if we had any energy or were hungry for it, we would’ve put it away in the second period.”

Julien Ellis got the start in net for Victoria, and was forced to make key saves early in the game.

“I think Julien kept us in the game,” commented Morrison on his goaltender. “He made a couple point-blank saves ... and it [gave the team] a false sense of security.”

Despite scoring two shorthanded goals in the game and having a 3-2 lead for almost the entire third period, Idaho found a way to even things up with only 50 seconds to go in regulation.

With the Steelheads net empty, the visiting team gained the zone and controlled the puck down low. Idaho’s Kris Sparre had the puck behind Ellis and with what looked to be a harmless pass in front, the puck deflected off Idaho’s Brandon Svendsen and passed Ellis to tie the game up at three all and send it into overtime. This was Svendsen’s first professional goal.

Overtime solved nothing, so a shoot-out was needed. Both teams scored twice through the first five shooters, so in the extra rounds Sparre sniped a shot off the inside of the post and in. Olivier Filion of Victoria needed to score to keep things alive, but was robbed by Climie’s glove. Idaho took the first matchup 4-3.

After being reassigned to Victoria by the Manitoba Moose of the AHL, Dylan Yeo returned to the Salmon Kings lineup after playing 14 games with the Moose. Yeo would play an important part on defence in Friday’s win, but the night would belong to Salmon Kings’ Brady Leavold and goaltender Todd Ford — the night’s first and second stars, respectfully.

Leavold opened the scoring midway through the first period as he batted in an airborne puck that had bounced off a few bodies in front of the net for his sixth goal of the year.

“I think maybe I should switch to baseball as I batted it out of the air there,” said Leavold, laughing.

He would later jam home a rebound at 7:16 of the second period to give the home team a 2-0 lead.

“As a young guy, its nice to put up the numbers but I’m just glad we got the win,” Leavold said after the game.

Saturday and Sunday’s games lacked the work ethic that led the Salmon Kings to their record-breaking 15-game winning streak earlier this season.

Saturday night’s game was a disappointing upset for the home crowd of 6,314, as the Salmon Kings fell into a 5-0 hole early into the third period. Shaun Landolt had the lone Salmon Kings’ goal off a shorthanded rush, but that was all the Kings could put past Steelheads’ goaltender Rejean Beauchemin.

Idaho knocked off Victoria by a final score of 7-1 Saturday night. On Sunday, March 22, the matinee game was more of the same as the Steelheads beat Victoria 4-2.

The Salmon Kings now travel down to California to take on Bakersfield and Stockton as they wrap the last four-game series of the season before heading into the Kelly Cup playoffs.