Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Surging Victoria Royals rout Calgary Hitmen

VICTORIA 7 CALGARY 2 Once you get to a certain level, the hockey world actually becomes very small.
D1-0205-hitmen-CLR.jpg
Royals forward Austin Carroll tries to flip the puck in front while Hitmen defenceman Jaynen Rissling closes in during first-period action at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Tuesday.

VICTORIA 7  CALGARY 2

Once you get to a certain level, the hockey world actually becomes very small.

When Mike Williamson took over as head coach of the Calgary Hitmen in 2009-10, the man he replaced was Dave Lowry, who had moved up to become assistant coach of the NHL’s Calgary Flames.

The two men met Tuesday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre with Williamson guiding the Hitmen (32-15-6) and Lowry the Victoria Royals (35-16-3). Both coaches have done good work this season and have their teams as honourable mentions in the last Canadian Hockey League top-10 poll. But the upper hand on this night went to Lowry as the Royals rode Austin Carroll’s hat-trick to beat the Hitmen 7-2 to remain undefeated in six games.

“It was a good team effort. We’re play each game like a playoff game now,” said Carroll, who upped his team-leading goal total to 25.

“We needed to get pucks deep and bodies in front of the net, and we did that.”

The teams close out their two-game set tonight on Blanshard.

Victoria tied the Chilliwack Bruins/Victoria Royals franchise record of 35 wins — set last season — with 18 games remaining.

“That’s a credit to the players,” said Lowry. “I like the direction we are going.”

>>> GET MORE VICTORIA ROYALS COVERAGE

The result added to the recent Hitmen slide. Calgary is 3-7-1 over the last 11 games after a searing run of 16-1-1 in the previous 18.

“The Royals are a hard-working team that is also a heavy team,” Williamson said before the game.

“These are going to be two physical games.”

And his charges were — at least early on — absorbing some jarring Victoria hits in the first period but skating to the first break with a 2-1 lead on goals by Connor Rankin and Brady Brassart. Calgary forward Rankin, recently acquired in a trade from the Tri-City Americans, banked in a wrap-around shot off Victoria goaltender Coleman Vollrath at 12:17 of the first period to open scoring.

The lanky Winnipeg Jets-signed Victoria forward Axel Blomqvist tipped in a centering pass from Steven Hodges to tie the game at 16:35. But Brassart’s 23rd goal of the season, and 100th of his WHL career, restored Calgary’s lead on the power play at 19:31 with Victoria’s Logan Nelson in the penalty box on a controversial charging call.

But Nelson would be heard from again in the pivotal final two minutes of the second period as the Buffalo Sabres prospect assisted on Carroll’s first goal of the evening and then himself scored a bank-shot goal off Calgary goaltender Chris Driedger. That gave Victoria — full value for its 31-15 shots advantage to the second break — a 3-2 lead. Nelson has nine points on five goals and four assists in his last five games.

“The simplicity of our game and our hard work speaks for itself,” said Nelson, a native of Minnesota.

“We were good in front of the net. But don’t read too much into this [scoreline]. We can’t take Calgary lightly. They are a team that is looking for a spark.”

Carroll scored off a rebound, from a Joe Hicketts point shot, to give Victoria a two-goal advantage at 3:46 of the third period. Braden Oleksyn, with his first WHL goal, and Logan Fisher made it 6-2 by 8:11 and this game was pretty much done. Carroll’s hat-trick goal on the power play capped off the night — quite literally as a few baseball caps came flying over the glass.

Calgary-native Vollrath finished with 24 saves against his hometown team. It was the 10th game in a row in which Vollrath, the WHL leader in goals-against average and save percentage, has allowed two or fewer goals when starting. Driedger and Mack Shields combined to make 39 saves for the Hitmen.

ICE CHIPS: Victoria goaltender Patrik Polivka, who is day-to-day with an injury, was not dressed Tuesday. The Royals called-up Michael Herringer from coach Dale Purinton’s Kerry Park Islanders of the Island Junior League to back-up Vollrath.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com