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Hungry Warriors fight off Victoria Royals

MOOSE JAW 4 VICTORIA 3 There were enough inter-relationships and twisting personal interconnections Tuesday afternoon at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to fill a season’s worth of Days of Our Lives episodes.
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Former Canadian world junior teammates, Royals defenceman Joe Hicketts and Warriors forward Brayden Point, battle for the puck during the first period at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Tuesday afternoon.

MOOSE JAW 4

VICTORIA 3

There were enough inter-relationships and twisting personal interconnections Tuesday afternoon at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to fill a season’s worth of Days of Our Lives episodes. Or this being Victoria, maybe Coronation Street.

With a robust trade history between the Victoria Royals and Moose Jaw Warriors the past two seasons, the Warriors’ 4-3 Western Hockey League victory over the Royals was rife with ex-teammates facing each other.

Former Royals forward Axel Blomqvist had the most satisfying outcome, scoring early for Moose Jaw against his former Victoria teammates in the win.

“It was a little bit weird, and hard, to play against my old buddies,” said the six-foot-six Swede, who is under NHL contract to the Winnipeg Jets.

“It was a really nice feeling, and a big relief, to get that early goal,” added Blomqvist, who has eight goals and 14 points in 15 games for Moose Jaw after beginning this season with 14 goals and 29 points in 34 games for Victoria.

Blomqvist mingled outside the dressing rooms with his old Royals teammates. But he absorbed some Victoria hits during the game with a glove to the head by Brandon Magee and glove push to the shoulder by Logan Fisher.

“That’s the way hockey is . . . there were a lot of emotions out there,” said Blomqvist.

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One of the players who came to Victoria from Moose Jaw in the Blomqvist deal is goaltender Justin Paulic, who started for the Royals on Tuesday, and was victimized in the first two minutes by Blomqvist and former Warriors teammate Jack Rodewald.

“I’ve got to find a way to stop at least one of those first two shots,” said Paulic, obviously disappointed in the result against his former team.

“We would have liked to get the win. But we move on from it. We’ve got to bounce back from this and keep working.”

Not that the Royals (32-22-4) haven’t been doing that of late. This was only Victoria’s fourth loss in regulation time in the last 20 games. Moose Jaw is 23-30-4 and will be hard pressed to reach that eighth and final playoff berth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.

It was also Victoria’s fourth game in five days.

“We’ve had a lot of games in a short period of time, and this noon start was odd for most of us, but there are no excuses,” said Paulic.

Defenceman Alexey Sleptsov, the other player who came to Victoria from Moose Jaw in the Blomqvist trade, admitted there was a bit of jawing on the ice from his old Warriors teammates, although there was a warm reunion outside the dressing rooms after the game.

“This was my [previous] team . . . so maybe you play harder,” said Sleptsov, who is from Russia.

He pointed to those first two minutes as being crucial Tuesday.

“That first period was not so good. We were not tired . . . it was hard to explain.”

Victoria blue-liner Travis Brown, who came to the Royals from the Warriors in a trade last year, also refused to blame fatigue.

“We can’t use that as an excuse, because that [games in quick succession over a short span] is going to happen a lot in the playoffs,” noted Brown.

“[In those circumstances] we need to play a simple team game, be air-tight in the defensive zone, be mentally strong and take care of our bodies.”

Tanner Eberle, with his 30th, and Czech forward Jiri Smejkal, with the winner, got the other Moose Jaw goals. Warriors captain Brayden Point, the fine centre who won gold with Canada at the 2015 world junior championship, had two assists and showed again why the Tampa Bay Lightning got the steal of the 2014 NHL draft in the third round.

“Brayden is a special player,” said Royals goalie Paulic, who faced Point for the first time as an opponent, after seeing him in practice every day when with the Warriors.

Regan Nagy, Alex Forsberg and Brandon Fushimi, shorthanded, scored for Victoria, while Magee had two assists. With an assist on Forsberg’s goal, Austin Carroll recorded his 68th point to break the Royals record for the most points in a season since the franchise moved to Victoria in 2011-12.

Meanwhile, the Royals’ first Hockey Hooky game drew 3,592 fans as a noon weekday game proved to be a concept in progress here. By comparison, an afternoon work-day crowd of nearly 10,000 is expected today at the Pacific Coliseum when the Warriors take on the Vancouver Giants at noon.

The Royals host the WHL-leading Kelowna Rockets, ranked No. 2 in the Canadian Hockey League, in a highly anticipated two-game set Friday and Saturday at the Memorial Centre.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com