It may be lost on Victoria Royals fans, who only know about the WHL first-round playoff exits of the last two years at the hands of the Kamloops Blazers, but the franchise also has a post-season history with the Spokane Chiefs.
Five main players in this year’s Royals-Chiefs opening-round series, which begins with the first two games Saturday and Sunday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, were a part of it — forwards Steven Hodges and Brandon Magee of the Royals and the Chiefs’ top three scorers, Mitch Holmberg, Mike Aviani and Reid Gow.
The Royals franchise was then in its final season as the Chilliwack Bruins in 2010-11 before moving to Victoria. Rated an honourable mention in the Canadian Hockey League top-10 poll when the season began, those underachieving Bruins faded to sixth place in the Western Conference and were eliminated 4-1 by the third-seed Chiefs in the best-of-seven opening round playoff series.
This time it’s the Royals, largely unheralded when the season began, as the third seed after obliterating the Royals/Bruins franchise records for most wins in a season (48) and most points (100) while being ranked No. 7 in the last CHL top-10 poll. The Chiefs are the sixth seed this time around. But as an indication of just how tough the Western Conference has been this season, they sport a 40-26-6 record.
“Steven and I have memories of being rookies in that [2011] series, and we want to turn the tide and get out of the first round, which has always been a problem for this club,” said Magee, referring to the fact the Royals/Bruins have never reached the second round in the eight years of franchise history.
A major factor in the series will be Spokane’s Holmberg, who won the WHL goal-scoring and points crowns with 62 and 118. He has turned 21 and is part of a peculiar breed. During Victoria’s seven seasons in the minor-pro ECHL, there were always players with the Salmon Kings and opposing teams who broke out with huge scoring numbers the previous season as over-agers in the major-junior WHL, OHL or QMJHL but were undrafted and without NHL contracts. That’s because NHL teams were wary of points accumulated by 20-year-old over-agers against 17- and 18-year-old defencemen in junior and wanted to see that replicated against older players in the AHL/ECHL before taking a chance on them.
No matter what the future holds for Holmberg, he is a load right now, and that’s all that concerns the Royals.
“We’re facing the leading scorer in the league and a 60-goal scorer,” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry.
“Often it’s just a matter of opportunity [in the pro game]. Sometimes, the light goes on at 20. Some guys are just flat-out late bloomers,” added Lowry, who himself went from 29 goals and 76 points the season before to 60 goals and 120 points in his final year of junior in the OHL.
What the Royals don’t want is for Holmberg to be blooming all over them in this series.
“We need to play with controlled emotion and be good on the special teams,” Lowry said of the keys to success for his squad.
Then there are the intangibles that you can never anticipate but which always pop up in the post-season. Lowry, a 19-season former NHLer, is living proof. He scored 10 goals in the 1995-96 regular season for Florida, then matched that entire output with 10 goals in the playoffs to lead the Panthers to the Stanley Cup final.
“In the playoffs, you need goaltending and you need timely scoring and unlikely scorers,” Lowry said.
“Your best players have to come through, but playoffs always include anomalies — those unexpected guys who have the best six to eight weeks of their playing lives. That’s what you’re looking for this time of year — those players to step up.”
After the two openers Saturday and Sunday on Blanshard, the series swings to Spokane for Games 3 and 4 on Wednesday, March 26, and Thursday, March 27. If needed, Game 5 is Saturday, March 29, in Victoria, Game 6 Monday, March 31, in Spokane and Game 7 Wednesday, April 2, in Victoria.
