VICTORIA 1
PRINCE ALBERT 0
It wasn’t Buckingham or Balmoral, but Victoria and Prince Albert were reunited Tuesday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. At least the Western Hockey League teams representing their namesake cities, with the appropriately named Royals from Victoria edging the Raiders from Prince Albert 1-0 before 3,463 fans.
Tyler Soy broke a long scoreless stretch with a quick wrist shot to the glove side to give Victoria (17-14-2) the winner at 3:19 of the third period and its second straight victory.
“I tried to use the defenceman as a screen and it worked out,” said Soy, of the shot.
Prince Albert, 7-3 in its last 10 games under former Royals head coach Marc Habscheid, fell to 15-16 overall. It was the second 1-0 loss in a row for the Raiders following a similar scoreline over the weekend in Kelowna against the Rockets.
Coleman Vollrath was helped by three hit posts in the first period but generally was full value for his 34-save shutout. Rylan Parenteau was also sharp in a 24-save performance in the Prince Albert net.
“I was tracking the puck well,” said Vollarth.
“My defencemen let me see the puck and cleared the rebounds.”
The game featured two enterprising defencemen, who while not physically overpowering, know how to move a puck. Victoria’s Joe Hicketts and Prince Albert’s Josh Morrissey leave later this week to the Canadian selection camp for the upcoming world junior hockey championships taking place in Toronto and Montreal. That’s where Morrissey could be facing in the same pool as Canada his former Raiders teammate, 19-year-old Edmonton Oilers NHL rookie forward Leon Draisaitl, who is eligible to play for his native Germany in the world juniors.
It was the last game on the Victoria bench for head coach Dave Lowry until early January, after he completes his assignment as assistant coach for Canada at the world junior championships.
Assistant coach Enio Sacilotto will take over the Royals bench in Lowry’s absence. Lowry was not overly pleased with the send-off his boys gave him.
“It’s a win and our goaltender was good — [Vollrath] made the first save and was good controlling the rebounds,” he said.
That’s where Lowry’s satisfaction with the victory ended.
“We better be a lot better [during his absence] than we were tonight,” he said.
“There’s lots of work to be done. I’m excited [about the world championships] but I wish our team was playing better here.”
Hicketts pointed to a recurring problem.
“We can’t be turning the puck over like that,” said the Royals blueliner.
Defensively, Hicketts said Victoria “limited rebounds.” But he was realistic about the victory.
“[Vollrath] saved our butts a couple of times tonight,” he said.
Victoria’s once-potent power play has hit a cold patch of late and was 0-6 on Tuesday. The Royals penalty kill, however, was stingy in holding the Raiders to 0-4.
The Royals host the Vancouver Giants on Friday night at the Memorial Centre.
