"A got a great lead pass from Ryan [Wade] but knew I was at a really bad angle. Basically, I put my head down and let it go," said Goldie, of his eighth goal of the season.

"[Rudkowsky] got a piece of it, but not enough. We played with a lot of determination and we always have some guy who steps up."

Regulation time ended 3-3 with Victoria holding a telling 50-33 shots-on-goal advantage as the Vancouver Canucks farm team pushed its record to 12-5 on the season. The Sharks-affiliate RoadRunners fell to 6-9-1 but had Victoria on edge all night, despite the shots and territorial advantage held by the Salmon Kings.

Phoenix survived a 10-3 Victoria shots flurry to open the game and managed to score first against the flow as Victoria defenceman Daniel Rahimi's inability to get the puck past the point caused a turnover at 11:21 of the first period. Phoenix forward Chris Stevens of Dawson Creek, who went to the Memorial Cup last season in junior with the Medicine Hat Tigers, took the ensuing shot from the point which went into the net off a weird deflection. Thatcher Bell, the Canucks third-round draft pick in 2000, was credited with his sixth goal of the season. Perhaps in a fitting sort of symmetry, Rahimi was the Canucks' third-round draft pick in 2006.

The free-wheeling opening period ended with Victoria holding a 22-17 shots advantage as Rudkowsky, who has played games in the ECHL, AHL and NHL, was outstanding.

Game first-star Ash Goldie, on a darting and sly single-man foray up the ice, finally solved Rudkowsky at 7:29 of the second period to tie the game 1-1 with his 12th goal of the season. Rahimi then more than redeemed his first-period miscue when the usually defensive-minded rearguard made a rush up ice and fed Jordan Krestanovich to make it 2-1 with a shorthanded goal at 10:54.

But Victoria-native Sean O'Connor, as he always seems to do on his visits home to the play the Salmon Kings, made his presence amply felt by rifling home a power-play rebound at 12:05 as Phoenix escaped the second period tied 2-2 despite being outshot 18-3 in the middle frame.

Both the Krestanovich and O'Connor goals came on a five-minute interference major to Victoria captain Kiel McLeod, who also received a game misconduct for drawing blood on Phoenix defenceman Corey LeClair. The crowd lustily booed the call because McLeod was also cut and left a trail of blood on the ice in the first period but without a penalty being called against the RoadRunners.

Daniel Sisca, just returned from call-up to Worcester of the AHL, put Phoenix ahead 3-2 with a powerplay goal at 3:16 of the third period after Victoria goalkeeper Julien Ellis looked to have the puck covered. Marc-Andre Bernier, the Canucks' second-round draft pick from 2003, took a sharp pass from Chris St. Jacques and smartly snapped home his fifth goal of the season to tie the game 3-3 at 5:09 of the third period.

"Persistence paid off for us tonight," said Salmon Kings head coach Mark Morrison.

"We were on the puck all night and didn't give up on any battle or puck. We even used Kiel's ejection in the second period as a positive and battled harder because of it. We put 50-plus shots on net and that was the story of the game."

And the Salmon Kings needed every last one of those 51 shots.

The teams meet again tonight and tomorrow at the Memorial Centre. Tomorrow's contest will feature the club's annual Teddy Bear Toss.