Welcome to 2016, Lethbridge.
The Victoria Royals knocked off the top team in the WHL, taking down the Hurricanes’ 10-game winning streak in the process, with a 3-1 victory before 6,245 fans Friday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
It was only the Hurricanes’ second loss in 18 games and the first in 2016. In the midst of a remarkable turnaround, after missing the playoffs the past six seasons, Lethbridge is now 36-13.
It was not only the win but how Victoria, second in the Western Conference at 30-15-5, achieved it. The Royals outshot Lethbridge 42-17 and controlled great swatches of the game. Only the goaltending of game first-star Stuart Skinner of Lethbridge kept it close.
“Skinner was phenomenal tonight” said Victoria forward Alex Forsberg. “You see why there is so much hype on him.”
It was Forsberg who solved Skinner for the game-winning goal. The 20-year-old veteran’s back-handed power play goal, cranked into the top corner, gave Victoria a 2-1 lead at 9:45 of the third period.
“It was a great play by [Vladimir] Bobylev,” said Forsberg, deflecting the credit to the Russian assist-getter.
“He has been playing great hockey for us lately.”
Jack Walker put the game on ice, into an empty-net, for his second goal of the night. He had opened scoring at 5:25 of the second period with the puck barely slipping between the legs of Skinner, who entered the game with back-to-back shutouts. It was the first goal allowed by Skinner in 177 minutes and 49 seconds. A 17-year-old with a late birthday, Skinner isn’t even eligible for the NHL draft until 2017.
“He’s very good,” said Victoria head coach Dave Lowry.
But the Royals were better.
“I liked our game tonight, from start to finish, especially how we managed the neutral zone,” said Lowry. “There were no passengers.”
Victoria built a 16-5 shots advantage in the first period but the six-foot-four, 200-pound Skinner doesn’t give away much and he certainly stood his ground. It helped his cause that an apparent goal by Victoria with six seconds remaining in the opening period was disallowed because it was ruled the puck got to Bobylev via a hand pass by Tyler Soy.
The shots advantage after two periods was 27-9 to Victoria. Despite that discrepancy, Victoria goaltender Coleman Vollrath made one of the saves of the season on what looked to be a sure goal by Lethbridge captain Tyler Wong early in the third period. But on just the 12th Lethbridge shot on net, the Hurricanes’ league top-ranked power play finally struck to tie it 1-1 at 5:40 through Ryley Lindgren.
Six of the ’Canes forwards, including WHL-leading scorer Brayden Burke, are in the top-20 of WHL scoring. But the Royals held them at bay, keeping the ’Canes off balance with relentless pressure and stifling neutral-zone play. That ended 2015 sixth-round Buffalo Sabres draft-pick Giorgio Estephan’s league-best points streak at 14 games.
The Royals are in Kelowna tonight to take on the Western Conference-leading Rockets.
