The Victoria Royals have ripped a page out of the baseball and minor-pro hockey handbook by incorporating a Tuesday school-day and work-day nooner into its 2014-15 Western Hockey League schedule.
It will occur Feb. 17 against the Moose Jaw Warriors at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
During the minor-pro ECHL years, RG Properties would marvel whenever the Salmon Kings played the Condors in the annual weekday morning game in which the Bakersfield, California, arena was jammed with thousands screaming school children.
Noon weekday games are also a staple of minor-pro baseball.
“More information will be coming, but we hope to engage the schools and make it a field-trip type activity — hockey hooky,” said Royals GM Cam Hope.
“It was our idea and our initiative and the Warriors and the WHL are OK with it.”
Also during Salmon Kings ECHL days, the Las Vegas Wranglers would play an annual midnight game. But the Garden City isn’t Sin City.
“We have no plans for that,” chuckled Hope.
There are three other home matinées for the Royals, two on Sundays and another on B.C. Family Day Feb. 9 against the defending Memorial Cup national champion Edmonton Oil Kings.
The WHL unveiled its 2014-15 schedule Wednesday.
The Royals will open the regular season with two road games Sept. 19 in Kamloops against the Blazers and Sept. 20 in Vancouver against the Giants.
Victoria’s home opener is Sept. 26 against Kamloops.
In what has become a tradition, the Royals will close the season with back-to-back games against the Silvertips on March 20 in Everett and March 21 in Victoria.
The Royals once again will play Vancouver 10 times, two games more than the eight each against other B.C. Division opponents Kamloops, Kelowna and Prince George.
There will again be four games, two home and two away, against each team in the U.S. Division.
Last season, Victoria head coach Dave Lowry said having the longest road trip late in the season and so close to the playoffs wasn’t ideal. This season, the Royals will get their longest road swing over with early. The six-game trip begins Oct. 10 in Calgary and ends Oct. 18 in Cranbrook with stops in-between at Medicine Hat, Red Deer, Edmonton and Lethbridge.
“It’s a good time of the year to do Alberta, before winter,” said Hope.
“It was a bit of everything coming together — of us wanting to do it earlier this season and of some arena [Memorial Centre] holds we have at that time for concerts.”
The Royals’ longest home stand is seven games from Dec. 27 to Jan. 10, which features four games against Prince George, two against Spokane and one against Medicine Hat.
It’s a season of home stands with the Royals featuring the seven-gamer and one of five games between Oct. 24-Nov. 2, two of four games each between Nov. 18-22 and Dec. 2-12 and two each of three games between Feb. 17-21 and March 14-20.
There are 11 back-to-back home dates against the same team, which comes with being located on the Island.
ICE CHIPS: Forward Tyler Soy and defenceman Chaz Reddekopp of the Royals are among the 44 players, 18 from the WHL, who have received invitations to the Canadian under-18 selection camp Aug. 2-5 in Calgary. The 22-player Canadian team will participate from Aug. 11-16 in the U-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament held annually in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
“It shows what they [Soy and Reddekopp] can do at this level,” said Hope.
Soy, a Cloverdale native, had 15 goals and 15 assists in 65 regular games for the Royals last season, while Reddekopp, who hails from West Kelowna, notched a goal and eight assists in 40 games.
