Forget Hurricanes. Lethbridge hasn’t even mustered a mild breeze this season with a Western Hockey League-worst record of 5-27-5.
Yet, it’s these kinds of games that have trap written all over them and the Victoria Royals were aware of that as they had a game tonight in Edmonton against the Oil Kings on the horizon.
“These are the games you worry about,” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry.
The Royals (22-13-2) took care of matters, however, in a 6-1 victory Sunday afternoon in Lethbridge over the ’Canes.
“Our guys made sure they were prepared,” said Lowry. “And they worked hard.”
The game was trickier than the scoreline might indicate, with Victoria goaltender Coleman Vollrath named second star with a 30-save performance.
“We gave them too many chances. Coleman made a lot of big saves,” said Lowry.
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The game shifted late in the first period with a power-play goal at 17:35 by Victoria energy-forward Brandon Magee, returning from sitting out a two-game suspension because of a match penalty.
Understated second-year defenceman Ryan Gagnon followed up just over a minute later with his first WHL goal, tipping home a shot by rookie Tyler Soy. Gagnon added an assist on power-forward Austin Carroll’s team-leading 18th goal of the season at 3:18 of the second period to make it 3-0 with Gagnon on his way to being named first star.
“Ryan Gagnon has been doing it all season but he has just not been rewarded for it. Today he was,” said Lowry.
Ben Walker, Steven Hodges and Mitch Skapski scored the other Victoria goals with Tyler Wong responding for the Hurricanes.
The Royals moved to 2-1-1 on their five-game road swing.
“Following that bad first period in Vancouver [in a 3-2 loss to start the swing], we’ve played really well as a group,” said Lowry.
“It’s been a collective team effort.”
The final game before the Christmas break for Victoria is tonight against a blazing Oil Kings team that beat Saskatoon 4-0 on Sunday and has now won nine consecutive games. Edmonton, however, will be missing Griffin Reinhart and Curtis Lazar to the Canadian world junior team camp.
“Edmonton is going to be a big challenge for us,” said Lowry.
Perhaps the tide turned for Victoria’s season after a humbling 5-0 loss at home to the Oil Kings on Nov. 6. That was followed by a practice the next morning that has become a part of team lore for this season. Something obviously clicked that next day, as the Royals are 12-4-1 since the loss to Edmonton.
“We all remember the game against Edmonton in our building. We learned a lesson that game of how they [Oil Kings] play,” said Lowry.
The Royals will disperse for the Christmas break following the game in the Alberta capital. They will re-assemble on Boxing Day to prepare for a two-game set Dec. 27-28 against the Prince George Cougars at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
