The fur flew after the first goal. In more ways than one. The Victoria Royals set a franchise record for most goals in a game by defeating the Kootenay Ice 10-3 before 7,006 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. The Royals, and Chilliwack Bruins previous, have scored nine goals in a WHL game on three previous occasions.
“Everybody played well. We moved the puck well. It was a group effort,” said sophomore forward Kaid Oliver, who scored twice for Victoria (19-10-3), which rebounded from a four-game winless road swing through the Eastern Conference.
“I am very proud of the work the players did to refocus after that grind of a road trip,” said Royals coach Dan Price.
The first Victoria goal came at 5:17 of the first period on the power play as Eric Florchuk scored the Teddy Bear Toss goal for the second consecutive season, igniting a torrent of stuffed toy animals from the stands, which were collected from the ice to be distributed to childen’s charities. It wasn’t the fastest Teddy toss goal in Royals history. That record is held by Austin Carroll, who scored at 3:51 in 2013. Florchuk, however, joined Carroll, now a pro in the AHL with Stockton, as a two-time Teddy Bear toss scorer for Victoria. The other Royals bear-toss goals have been scored by Zane Jones, Axel Blomqvist and Ethan Price. Victoria is 4-2-1 in the toss games.
“It was a lucky bounce and it just came to my stick,” said Florchuk. “It’s a weird feeling, to be honest. I wasn’t expecting to do this a second time.”
The other Victoria goals in the opening period came from Oliver, also on the power play, and Igor Martynov, the Belarusian headed to play in the 2018 world junior championship for his native country. Victoria forward Matthew Phillips missed a penalty shot in the second period but made up for that by setting up Tyler Soy for a one-timer on the power play at 10:26. Rookie Peyton Krebs, the top overall pick in the 2016 WHL bantam draft and a consensus projection for the first round of the 2019 NHL draft, got Kootenay on the board before Dino Kambeitz made it 5-1 for Victoria at the second break. Veteran defenceman Ralph Jarratt, returning to the Victoria line up after missing 10 games due to injury, scored from the point in the third period before Oliver’s second of the night. Spencer Gerth and blue-liners Jeremy Masella and Mitchell Prowse of Victoria, the latter with his first of the season, and Brett Davis and Cole Muir of Kootenay rounded out scoring.
The Ice have missed the playoffs the last two seasons. The teams meet only once a season.
It is the Island derby that never was. But it played out for at least one night Friday at the Memorial Centre. Kootenay (13-17-1) was rumoured to have been the Naniamo Ice, if not for the soundly-defeated arena referendum held in the Harbour City last spring. So in Cranbrook they remain.
The Royals now embark on a three-game road trip with games in Prince George against the Cougars on Sunday and Tuesday and in Langley against the Vancouver Giants next Friday before returning home to face the Giants next Saturday.
