The current big-league pros produced in the nine-year history of the Chilliwack Bruins/Victoria Royals franchise are defenceman Nick Holden of the Colorado Avalanche and KHL forwards Roman Horak and Oscar Moller. 2014 Royals grads Ben Walker in the AHL and Steven Hodges and Logan Nelson in the ECHL are biting around the edges. The franchise, however, has yet to record a major breakthrough pro goaltender.
That’s not to say the franchise’s creasemen haven’t had breakout moments. Coleman Vollrath is having one now, as the Canadian Hockey League goaltender of the week rides a two-game shutout streak into the Royals’ final-two WHL regular-season games tonight at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre and Saturday in Everett, both against the Silvertips.
After blanking the Giants 2-0 last Friday in Vancouver, Vollrath heard a fan the next night in Victoria yell out: “Get another shutout.”
“That was the ‘S’ word and I thought that had jinxed it,” chuckled Vollrath, who admits to being superstitious about such things.
But far from it, as Vollrath recorded a second consecutive whitewash of the Giants in a 3-0 victory last Saturday.
“I’ve progressed a lot in my game,” said the undrafted 19-year-old from Calgary.
Now comes some serious clock watching as he stalks franchise records. Going back to a game in Kelowna, Vollrath is working on a 129-minute, 31-second shutout streak and is tracking Patrik Polivka’s Royals record of 139:04 from last season and the franchise standard 153:56 set by Matt Esposito in 2006-07 when the club was located in Chilliwack. Vollrath can break both in his next game.
“This [CHL award and shutout streak] is a huge honour but I can’t do it by myself. The 20 guys in front of me got that award by eliminating [opposition] quality scoring chances,” said Vollrath.
>>> GET MORE VICTORIA ROYALS COVERAGE
Vollrath’s emergence as a factor couldn’t come at a better time as the B.C. Division second-seed Royals (38-28-4) look toward an opening-round playoff series starting March 27-28 at the Memorial Centre against the divisional third seed, likely to be Prince George (30-35-5).
The Royals’ team shutout streak came to an end when the Giants defeated Victoria 4-1 on Sunday with Justin Paulic in the nets. Paulic is a battler. As is his custom, Royals coach Dave Lowry didn’t tip his hand when it comes to his crease starter.
“Goaltending is a competition,” he said.
“Both want to be in. Who ever plays best, will get to start.”
From his skaters this weekend, Lowry said he is looking for “execution and systems . . . we want to go into the playoffs on a roll.”
For Victoria’s 20-year-old players — Brandon Magee, Austin Carroll, Travis Brown — tonight will be the final regular-season home game of their WHL careers and tomorrow the final regular-season game, period. The same can be said for the majority of Victoria’s seven 19-year-olds — a list which includes Vollrath and Paulic — because only three can be retained for next season.
“It’s been a long journey from that 16-year-old kid who came into Chilliwack,” said Magee.
“I’ve not regretted a minute of it. Coming to the Island, the Royals are a first-class organization that treated us right.”
The U.S. Division co-leading Silvertips (41-20-8) come in tonight as the No. 9-ranked team in the CHL. Pundits kept expecting them to fall, but they hung tough in the top-10 poll for 21 consecutive weeks. That’s thanks to a pair of Russian forwards, Ivan Nikolishin and 2014 first-round Montreal Canadiens draft-pick Nikita Scherbak, and the goaltending of Austin Lotz.
“Everett started well and has stayed consistent,” said Royals blueliner Brown, of a team that has refused to fade.
ICE CHIPS: Joe Hicketts of the Royals and Jason Fram of Spokane each trail Travis Sanheim of the Calgary Hitmen by two points in the race for the WHL scoring title for defencemen.
