VICTORIA 6
RED DEER 4
Be it ever so humble, and now not quite so new, the Victoria Royals are hoping there is nothing like home ice in the barn on Blanshard.
It started out well as the Royals began a franchise-record eight-game home stand Tuesday night with a 6-4 victory over the Red Deer Rebels (8-6-2) before 3,032 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Ryan Peckford scored on a three-on-two break for the winning goal at 17:39 of the third period after scooping up the puck following a blocked shot by Dante Hannoun. It was a patented Royals turnover and quick counter goal that imprinted so many of last season's 50 wins.
“I wasn’t thinking shoot all the way. I just took what the goalie was giving me,” said Peckford, who this season set the all-time franchise record for most points in a game with six.
“We are starting to click and play Royals hockey again.”
Ethan Price scored an empty-net goal for the Royals (9-7-2) to put it away.
Two goals by Red Deer defenceman Josh Mahura late in the third period, one on the power play, had erased a two-goal Victoria lead to tie the game 4-4.
The result extended Victoria’s winning streak against Eastern Conference teams to 18 games, dating to Oct. 30 of last year. The Royals are 21-2-1 against Eastern teams in that stretch.
Rebels owner, GM and head coach Brent Sutter wisely avoided the all-too-common temptation to sell out the future in hosting the Memorial Cup. So following last spring’s automatic bye into the national championship tournament held in Red Deer, Sutter’s Rebels had enough left in reserve to return a physically large team this season that can really lean on opponents.
“We had to use our speed against such a big team,” Peckford said.
Jared Dmytriw opened scoring for Victoria. But the Rebels used their size to position players well in front of the net, leading to two deflection goals by Grayson Powlenchuk and Dawson Martin that made it 2-1.
The Royals drew level in the second period on the type of quick-twitch, bank-shot play that only Matthew Phillips can make. Another bank-shot goal, by another undersized but water-bug quick Royals forward, Hannoun, was scored in the third period.
But the goal of the night, which made it 3-2 in the second period, was the kind only a pure scorer can make. Tyler Soy juggled the puck on his stick to gain a breakaway and tucked it between the wickets of Rebels goalie Riley Lamb — all in one artful swoop.
It was the 100th goal of Soy’s career with the Royals and leaves him one behind Brandon Magee’s Royals record for the most since the franchise moved to the Island in 2011-12. The all-time franchise record of 140 is held by Ryan Howse, who played for the club during the five years when it was located in Chillwack and branded as the Bruins.
It was Soy’s 10th goal of the season, so he would need 50 in total to track down Howse’s all-time record this season. Soy is also eligible to return to the Royals as an over-age 20-year-old next season.
“It would be nice [to get the record], but I’m not too worried about it right now. I’ll take it goal by goal,” said the seventh-round Anaheim Ducks draft pick.
Lamb made 32 saves for Red Deer and a solid Griffen Outhouse had 40 for Victoria.
