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Long wait over for Victoria Royals' Forsberg

All that action from September in the Western Hockey League was to eliminate six teams. Now, the remaining 16 start out on an even footing in the playoff quest to represent the league in the 2015 Memorial Cup to be held in Quebec City.
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Forward Alex Forsberg is off to a fast start in his 20-year-old season.

All that action from September in the Western Hockey League was to eliminate six teams. Now, the remaining 16 start out on an even footing in the playoff quest to represent the league in the 2015 Memorial Cup to be held in Quebec City.

It begins tonight with the defending Memorial Cup champions and Eastern Conference eighth-seed Edmonton Oil Kings meeting the Eastern top-seed Wheat Kings in Brandon.

The B.C. Division second-seed Victoria Royals (39-29-4) open with Games 1-2 on Friday and Saturday nights at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre against the divisional third-seed Prince George Cougars (31-36-5) in a best-of-seven Western Conference opening-round series.

Victoria won the eight-game regular-season series against Prince George 5-3. But the Cougars enter the playoffs on a high, going 7-3-1 in their last 11 games, with every one of those played under playoff-like pressure in a desperate stretch drive to slip into the post-season.

The Royals counter with a playoff-hardened core group from the past three years, which have included two first-round losses to the Kamloops Blazers and a combative second-round exit last season against the Portland Winterhawks.

But for one member of the Royals, forward Alex Forsberg, this might as well all be Greek. In his fourth WHL season, Friday will be Forsberg’s first playoff game as a regular roster player. His only post-season WHL experience has been as a bantam call-up by the Cougars for three games in 2011. That, coincidentally, was the last time the Cougars made the playoffs after missing out the last three years.

“I definitely didn’t want to wait that long,” said Forsberg, who turned 20 in January.

“And to be playing my former team [Cougars] is surreal. I still have good friends on that team. And [overall] this feels weird. Normally by this time, I’m on the plane and halfway home.”

Forsberg scored 13 goals and had 25 points for Victoria in 30 games. He began the season with 13 goals and 33 points in 36 games for the Saskatoon Blades before the trade that brought him to the Island.

“I’m glad Victoria gave me this opportunity,” added Forsberg, noting the Blades missed the playoffs.

Although he has had a dearth of WHL post-season experience, Forsberg did have a 16-game playoff run with the Humboldt Broncos of his home-province Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League in 2012-13, the year he left the Cougars mid-season after his request for a trade was refused.

“I’ve always been able to score big goals,” said Forsberg, as he looks forward to largely uncharted territory for him in the WHL playoffs.

“There’s a lot of excitement and everyone is loose in our room. We need to take it one period at a time. We need to get on them [Cougars] early, and put some doubt in their heads right off the bat.”

As the first overall pick in the 2010 WHL bantam draft, Forsberg wasn’t drafted or signed by an NHL team, while those selected after him in that 2010 bantam class included the likes of Curtis Lazar, Josh Morrissey, Dillon Heatherington, Eric Comrie, Morgan Klimchuk, Sam Reinhart, Nic Petan, Madison Bowey, Cole Ully and current Royals teammate and Edmonton Oilers-signed Greg Chase.

But you can go through any draft list in hindsight.

Yet, being a first overall selection brings with it a special brand of pressure.

“It weighed me down a little at the start,” admitted Forsberg.

“But that’s a long way in the past. I’ve just tried to mould my career since. Whatever happened in the past is in the past. You can’t do anything about it now.”

Yet, in some ways, you can. A lengthy playoff run with the Royals would certainly be a nice late WHL-career topper.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com

Twitter.com/tc_vicsports