The Victoria Royals took their Western Hockey League-leading — yes, you read that right — record to 7-1 on Saturday night in Kamloops with a 3-1 victory over the reeling Blazers.
“It’s a credit to our players,” Royals head coach Dave Lowry said following the game.
“[The media] was saying it was going to be a rebuild year, but you would be hard pressed to find anybody in our dressing room who believes that. One thing about us, is that we play a very good team game.”
With only 13 returnees, and 10 new faces, the Royals still made the honourable mention in last week’s Canadian Hockey League national top-10 poll. Victoria is almost certain to gatecrash higher up the CHL top-10 poll this week. The winless Blazers fell to 0-6, with three of those defeats coming against the Royals.
“This is a tough building, and we knew Kamloops would come out with urgency,” said Lowry.
Victoria’s league-leading penalty kill, which has allowed just one goal in 31 opposition chances, held Kamloops to 0-3. But if the kill wasn’t stingy enough defensively, it proved an offensive factor as well. Logan Fisher, forechecking deep in the Kamloops zone with Victoria shorthanded, stole the puck for the 2-1 lead unassisted at 10:48 of the third period. Fisher’s first goal of the season stood as the winner.
The veteran two-way centre, one of the Royals’ three allowable 20-year-olds, has the unenviable task of matching up against the other team’s top line night in and night out.
“It was nice to see [Fisher] get rewarded,” said Lowry.
Tyler Soy’s Victoria-leading sixth goal of the season was scored into an empty net with three seconds remaining.
The undersized but shifty Victoria rookie forward Matthew Phillips, with his second goal in as many nights and third on the season, opened scoring in the second period with one of the most dazzling goals of the early season. Phillips corkscrewed around Kamloops defenceman Patrik Maier, who played for Slovakia in the 2015 world junior championships, to make the scoring play all the more impressive.
“That was one of the prettiest goals you are going to see,” said Lowry, who will coach Canada in the 2016 world junior championships in Helsinki.
Blazers forward Matt Needham tied it 1-1 less than a minute later in the middle period.
The Royals’ league top-10 ranked power play was held to 0-4, but the team found other ways to get the job done.
Goaltender Coleman Vollrath, who has played all eight games for Victoria, faced 20 shots. Victoria put 30 shots on Kamloops goaltender Dylan Ferguson, an Island product from Lantzville.
The Royals, who opened the season with six home dates, concluded their first road trip with a sweep of Kamloops and Kelowna.
The Royals return to Blanshard to meet the Red Deer Rebels (6-2) on Friday.
