Tied for third in the Western Conference and fourth overall heading into Christmas break in the Western Hockey League, Victoria Royals head coach Dave Lowry and general manager Cam Hope should be a rather content lot heading to the holiday season.
At the unofficial midway mark to the season — despite having passed that point two games ago — the Royals sat two points behind the Portland Winterhawks in second in the conference, a distant 10 points behind Kelowna, which has played five fewer games than Victoria and proved to be the class of the field.
“We’re real pleased with where we’re at,” Lowry admitted as he prepared to celebrate Christmas with family after the team dispersed following Tuesday’s big 5-3 win in Edmonton. “I think we’ve got contributions from a lot of guys. Our young guys have been real good for us.”
Decimated by injury throughout the first half, the Royals have battled on. Having lost potential early-round NHL pick Joe Hicketts, Steven Hodges, captain Jordan Fransoo, Keegan Kanzig and Jack Walker for long stretches, the Royals are now without leading scorer Logan Nelson.
But youngsters have filled in more than admirably.
“We have been [dinged by injury] and the good thing for us is we’ve had a lot of guys elevate their games and step up and give us timely performances,” said Lowry.
Asked what he wants to see in the second half, he simply replied: “I want to see guys that are paying attention to themselves while they’ve been away and make sure that we understand that the second half is a lot tougher.”
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He might also want to experience more wins at home. To date, the Royals are 11-8-0-1 for a .575 win percentage at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre — where they will return to face Prince George in a weekend set Dec. 27-28 — and 12-5-0-1 (.694) on the road.
The Royals have scored 111 goals in 38 games, eighth lowest in the league. But the stingy team has allowed just 94, fourth best in the 22-team loop.
The goaltending of both Patrik Polivka and Coleman Vollrath has been out of this world, answering the call time and again. Vollrath, having played just 15 games, leads the league in both save percentage at .937 and goals-against average at 2.06.
Polivka (.918 save percentage and 2.55 GAA) is tied for first in shutouts with four.
“The goaltending has been outstanding,” admitted Lowry.
Defensively, Brett Cote and now Ryan Gagnon have played a ton with Hicketts, Fransoo and, at times, Kanzig out.
Kanzig leads the corps and the entire team in the telling plus-minus department at plus-17 (tied for 14th in the league), way up from his minus-10 last year before he was selected in the third round of the NHL draft by the Calgary Flames.
“Kanzig has been very good and keeping it very simple,” said Lowry.
The most pleasant surprise back on the blue-line might just be Chaz Reddekopp, who has played 29 games as a 16-year-old, eating up valuable minutes an has a goal and seven assists. He is also a solid plus-7.
“He got healthy and he’s playing in a lot of situations right now and he’s gaining a lot of experience.” Lowry said.
Up front, the same can be said of Tyler Soy, another 16-year-old who has nine goals and eight assists in 37 games played (14th in WHL rookie scoring).
Brandon Fushimi has proved he more than belongs and has opened the eyes of NHL scouts. The Colorado native has 11 goals and 17 points and is one of just a handful of Royals to play all 38 games, along with Cote, Gagnon, Logan Fisher and Ben Walker.
“Fush came into camp, got kicked in the rear and decided there was a certain way he was going to have to work and he’s been very good,” said Lowry.
Nelson has five game-winning goals (tied for fourth in the WHL), is 48th in scoring with 12 goals and 20 assists in 33 games. He’s three points up on teammate Brandon Magee and four ahead of Austin Carroll, who may be surprising some with his offensive potential.
Not the coach, though.
“We were expecting him to take it to the next level,” said Lowry.
