VICTORIA 8
EDMONTON 2
How good has this franchise-record 10-game win streak been for the Victoria Royals?
Well, in seven homes games — over that impressive stretch — the local Western Hockey League club has out-scored its opposition 42-11, which makes viewing just that much more fun.
Following Monday afternoon’s 6-4 win over the Everett Silvertips, an announced crowd of 3,939 fans received even more bang for their buck on Tuesday, when the Royals disposed of the Edmonton Oil Kings 8-2 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
It was the 13th straight game in which the Royals have managed at least one point and the locals have also moved into a tie for first place in the Western Conference as the Kelowna Rockets were defeated by Seattle on Tuesday. The Rockets do have one game in hand.
“It’s been a lot of fun and, you know what, we’ve been playing the right way,” said captain Joe Hicketts. “Today we kind of got the score up, but it was nice to see everyone was tracking back, we were all skating hard and working hard back to the puck and from playing in the offensive zone.That’s where our success has come from this year, our ability to kind of work back into our dfensive end and strip pucks.”
What’s even more imposing is, it was the Royals’ fourth game in five nights as fatigue was expected to be a factor, although the Oil Kings were also on a tough trip.
“That shows the commitment and preparation,” said Hicketts, who had a goal on the night and was extremely physical. “We’ve been prepared to play every game. We kind of looked at it as a tough stretch, but something every team has to go through. The way we battled and competed, it’s something we're all proud of each other [for] in the room.”
It took the Royals just 59 seconds to get on the scoreboard as Tyler Soy picked up right where he left off on Monday, recording his 30th of the season for a 1-0 lead on a great pass from Jack Walker.
They fell behind with goals from Edmonton’s Kobe Mohr and local product Dysin Mayo by the 8:22 mark of the first period.
But the goals then came fast and furious as Hicketts (on a delightful move to his backhand in tight at 14:18) and Jared Dmytriw scored 43 seconds apart for a 3-2 Victoria lead.
Regan Nagy and Alex Forsberg then tallied 27 seconds apart by 6:47 of the second before Walker upped it to 5-2 to chase Oil Kings starting netminder Payton Lee from the game. Ethan Price quickly welcomed backup Patrick Dea with a power-play marker and the Royals led 7-2 after 40 minutes with a 27-14 shot advantage.
Dmytriw, with his second of the game, took just nine seconds to make it 8-2 early in the third, which tied a franchise record (Taylor Crunk in 2014 and Ryan Howse in 2011) for fastest goal at the start of a period.
Meanwhile, the Walker, Soy and Vladimir Bobylev line finished with seven points on the night after recording 10 the previous afternoon.
The Royals will now play three road games in three nights beginning Saturday in Everett.
