The last time veteran hockey mentor Bob Woods brought a team through Victoria, his pro Mississippi Sea Wolves took an ECHL set from the Salmon Kings exactly 10 years ago.
But now the Saskatoon Blades head coach and GM, Woods may well have been singing the Biloxi Blues on Friday night as his WHL club dropped its sixth consecutive game as the Victoria Royals skated to a 6-3 victory before 4,713 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. Or was it the Blomqvist Blues the Blades were humming?
The long-reaching Swedish forward, Axel Blomqvist, paced the Royals victory with the hat-trick.
“I played a simple game and finished my hits and the offence [came from there],” said the Winnipeg Jets-signed 19-year-old, who has 13 goals on the season.
“It felt good tonight.”
The Blades, however, didn’t make it easy on the Royals despite sporting a WHL-worst record of 7-21-2. Saskatoon took the game to Victoria (16-14-2) in the first two periods and a 3-2 lead into the second break.
“Saskatoon came out hard and were a tough team to play,” said Blomqvist.
“But we came out with the mentality we wanted to win this game.”
Especially in the final period.
Power-play counters in the first four minutes of the third period by Blomqvist and defenceman Chaz Reddekopp, the latter’s first goal of the season, gave Victoria a 4-3 lead before Blomqvist’s third goal of the night and Greg Chase’s empty-netter provided the insurance.
“We picked up on our urgency [in the third period],” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry.
But he again, in a season-long refrain, cited the need to play “the full 60 minutes.”
“In the first two periods, some guys were not dialed into the game like they needed to be,” said Lowry.
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Nanaimo-product Ryan Coghlan, a former Midget defenceman with the North Island Silvertips, opened scoring for Saskatoon at 2:31 of the first period. Blomqvist top-shelved the puck at 3:53 of the second period to tie the game. But then, with Blomqvist hanging on him, a persistent Alex Forsberg restored Saskatoon’s lead at 8:23 of the second.
Victoria defenceman Joe Hicketts, who leaves next week to the Canadian selection camp for the world junior championship, laced home a slapshot at 16:16 to again pull Victoria level. But then Brett Stovin scored shorthanded for Saskatoon to make it 3-2 at 18:48 of the second.
Rookie Dante Hannoun, who had been out since Oct. 24, drew back into the Royals lineup and earned two assists on the night.
“We slowly started pulling together and ground out the win,” said the diminutive 16-year-old forward.
Coleman Vollrath made 25 saves in goal for Victoria and Trevor Martin 28 for Saskatoon.
