The Victoria Royals weren’t above some self-deprecation to start the Western Hockey League season at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Instead of shying from last spring’s playoff collapse, the Royals embraced it, and opened the night by showing the 6,539 fans a video clip of that infamous Kelowna Rockets goal with just milliseconds remaining. The camera then panned to the Royals lifting logs at a local beach, with veteran defenceman Ryan Gagnon intoning: “Not [happening] this year.”
The Prince George Cougars, however, ran the Victoria losing streak to two games, spanning five months from last season’s Game 7 playoff loss to Kelowna.
Prince George defeated Victoria 3-1 on a 2016-17 opening night when the Royals raised both the 2015-16 B.C. Division and WHL regular-season championship banners. It was Victoria’s first regular-season loss since Feb. 16 after ending with 13 consecutive wins last regular season.
Both teams skated thin Friday. The Royals have Tyler Soy (Ducks), Matthew Phillips (Flames), Jack Walker (Maple Leafs) and Chaz Reddekopp (Kings) away at NHL training camps.
With so much top-shelf talent absent, it was perhaps understandable the Victoria power play squandered so many opportunities in going 0-9.
“That’s a tough stat to look at,” said veteran Royals forward Dante Hannoun.
“We’ve got to get more pucks and more bodies to the net and hope for better bounces.”
The Royals buzzed the net in outshooting the Cougars 31-20.
“We had guys playing on the power play who might not be playing on it every night. Yet, they created opportunities,” said Victoria head coach Dave Lowry.
The Cougars aren’t immune from the absentee parade, either, with Sam Ruopp (Blue Jackets), Tate Olson (Canucks), Jenson Harkins (Jets), Jesse Gabrielle (Bruins), Brogan O’Brien, and Duncan’s Josh Anderson (Avalanche) still away at NHL camps. Brad Morrison has returned from the Rangers and Kody McDonald from the Islanders.
The Cougars’ power play went 0-3.
The Royals dressed nine new faces, six of them rookies.
“If both teams had their full complement of players, I would be more concerned [about the result],” said Lowry.
There was no captain selected for Victoria. Hannoun and defencemen Gagnon and Ralph Jarratt skated as assistant captains.
Prince George defenceman Max Martin, with his first career WHL goal, opened the scoring on Blanshard for 2016-17, at 6:53 of the first period. Colby McAuley made it 2-0 for the visitors at 9:49 of the first. A deflection by Ty Westgard, off a long shot by Ethan Price, finally got Victoria on the board at 15:03 of the second period. It was Westgard’s first career WHL goal. McAuley’s second goal of the night, this one into an empty net in the third period, provided the insurance.
Griffen Outhouse of Victoria made 18 saves in goal. Over-age goaltender Ty Edmonds of the Cougars made 30 stops.
