VICTORIA 5
KOOTENAY 1
The Ice Age is over. Global warming has hit the Western Hockey League.
The Kootenay Ice have won three WHL championships, a Memorial Cup and have never missed the playoffs since moving to Cranbook from Edmonton in 1998-99. But suddenly thawing Kootenay (6-23-2) fell even further into the WHL basement following Saturday night’s 5-1 loss to the surging Victoria Royals (19-8-2), who won their third consecutive game, before 4,593 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
It certainly didn’t help the Ice to have their two top scorers, Luke Philp and Zak Zborosky, out of the lineup as Kootenay iced a team Saturday with only two players in double digits in scoring, and they were at 12 and 13 points.
The Royals’ diminutive, but dynamic, 17-year-olds both counted, with Matthew Phillips scoring his WHL rookie-leading 16th and 17th goals of the season, and Dante Hannoun his 15th in a breakout sophomore campaign. Their linemate, 20-year-old Alex Forsberg, also scored while dishing for three assists.
“[Phillips and Hannoun] may be young, but they are skilled guys,” said Forsberg.
Right back at you.
“[Forsberg] is a veteran guy who really helps us out,” said Phillips.
“We work well together. It’s a fun environment.”
Russian import Vladimir Bobylev scored his 10th goal of the season on a two-point night for Victoria. Czech-import Roman Dymacek opened the scoring for Kootenay.
“That was a big wake-up call,” Forsberg said of the Ice goal to open the game.
“It really woke us up and we turned it around.”
A busy Wyatt Hoflin made 38 saves in goal for the Ice and Coleman Vollrath 21 for the Royals in a crease match-up of 20-year-olds.
It was the last Royals game for Victoria head coach Dave Lowry and captain Joe Hicketts until Jan. 8 in Prince George. They will each miss 13 Royals games while away with Canada at the 2016 world junior championships in Helsinki, Finland, with the national-team camp opening next week in Toronto. Lowry is the Canadian head coach and Hicketts, one of three returnees from the defending gold-medallist Canadian team, a candidate to be named national captain or assistant captain.
But on Saturday, it was club before country, for at least one more night. “We were prepared to play tonight,” Lowry said.
Next up for the Royals is a quirk in the schedule. They play their next four games against the Vancouver Giants, beginning Friday at the Pacific Coliseum followed by games next Saturday and Sunday at the Memorial Centre, and back in Vancouver on Dec. 16. That means, including Tuesday’s 3-1 victory against Medicine Hat and Saturday’s decision over the Ice, the Royals will have played six consecutive games against the three lowest-ranked teams in the WHL.
ICE CHIPS: Former Victoria Salmon Kings pro defenceman Gord Burnett has returned to the Memorial Centre as Ice assistant coach.
