The Victoria Royals venture into Kennewick, Washington, tonight looking to make it four out of a possible six points on this three-game Western Hockey League road trip.
A 4-3 setback in Portland on Wednesday was followed by Friday’s solid 3-0 road win in Spokane as the Royals end up taking three out of four games from the Chiefs this season, including a pair of home wins. The defeat in Portland snapped a streak of six games with at least one point for Victoria, which got back to work.
“We found a way to win tonight and that was key,” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry. “It wasn’t the most thorough effort, but we found a way to win, which I really like.”
Tyler Soy had two goals and an assist in the win, while linemate Jack Walker had the other tally. The third man on that line, Greg Chase, had a pair of helpers as the Royals improve to 27-20-3-1.
“We got off to a great start. We were ready to go,” said Lowry, who liked Soy’s effort. “He was opportunistic tonight.”
Coleman Vollrath stopped 29 shots including 16 in the opening period and 11 in the second.
The Royals now move into the Toyota Center tonight where they dropped a 4-1 decision in mid-November, roughly two weeks after a 4-1 win and 5-4 overtime loss to the Americans in Victoria.
The Americans — who lost 4-1 to Medicine Hat on Friday — were coming off a sequence of four shutout victories in five games, prior to an out-of-character 7-5 loss to Portland.
Back-up netminder Evan Sarthou posted all four shutouts over that stretch from Jan. 16-24 as starter Eric Comrie left the team to join Canada’s gold-medal winning World Junior team and had not played since his return, due to injury.
Comrie, a teammate of Royals’ defenceman Joe Hicketts with Team Canada, took the loss on Friday night, making 35 saves.
ROYAL DECLARATIONS: The Royals remind fans that Mad Mondays returns this week with $5 tickets available for Feb. 7 against the Red Deer Rebels and Mon., Feb. 9 for a Family Day 2 p.m. matinee vs. the defending Memorial Cup Champion Edmonton Oil Kings in which fans can skate with the players after the game. The ticket deal is only available at Select Your Tickets box office every Monday.
