Rogers, over and out.
The Victoria Royals’ first experience at the $480-million Rogers Place in the Alberta capital was a memorable one on Friday night, as Matthew Phillips recorded a hat trick in a 6-1 victory against the Edmonton Oil Kings in Western Hockey league play.
Just two days after the National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers played their first game in the 18,641-seat facility, the Royals dumped the Oil Kings in the home team’s fourth WHL contest in the new digs.
The victory wrapped up a six-game road trip in which the Royals finished 4-2 to sit 5-5 overall. They now return home to begin a three-game homestand at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, starting Tuesday against the Saskatoon Blades, before a weekend set against Swift Current on Friday and Everett on Saturday.
It was exactly the way head coach Dave Lowry wanted the trip to end, especially after a 5-2 loss in Lethbridge on Wednesday.
“We’ll take it,” Lowry said of the 4-2 log over 10 days. “We learned a lot about our group. We did some good things and we did some not-so-good things. Moving forward, we know there’s a certain way we have to play — and when we do that, we’re good. We did the little things tonight that make us a good team.”
Phillips, who also recorded a hat trick against Edmonton last November in Victoria, finished with four points on the night. So did Tyler Soy, who collected a goal and three assists.
Phillips, last year’s WHL rookie of the year, opened the scoring for the Royals as he gobbled up a turnover and buried it five-hole on goalie Patrick Dea at 8:38 of the first period. Soy made it 2-0 on a power play 3:25 later.
Royals netminder Griffen Outhouse robbed Trey Fix-Wolansky early in the second period. Phillips then recorded back-to-back power-play tallies 1:36 apart, just before the midway mark of the frame, with Brayden Gorda handed a double-minor for high-sticking.
Victoria’s power play was a solid 3-for-7 on the evening.
“It was the difference in the game. You score early and take control of the game,” Lowry said of the power play, which snapped out of a funk. “That’s what we’ve talked about. I haven’t been overly concerned because we’ve been getting good looks, and tonight we executed and the guys were rewarded for it.”
Jack Walker and Regan Nagy scored goals less than two minutes apart by the 13:13 mark of the third. Tyler Robertson snapped Outhouse’s shutout bid on a late power play as the Oil Kings were nearly blanked for a third-straight home game.
Edmonton lost 1-0 to Kelowna on Oct. 7 and 2-0 to Vancouver on Tuesday. Friday’s game drew 7,176 fans.
mannicchiarico@timescolonist.com
Twitter/tc_vicsports
