VICTORIA 5
PRINCE GEORGE 2
May the Force be with you. And the Sully, too.
It certainly was for Alex Forsberg, whose natural hat-trick propelled the Victoria Royals to a 5-2 WHL victory on Saturday night over the Prince George Cougars in a game that was part of the Green Men farewell tour to raise funds for cancer research.
The guys in the full-body green leotards — Sully and Force, known for their shtick at Canucks games — displayed decent drawing power. Up against both the Canucks and a Seahawks playoff game, attendance was 4,697 at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The Royals (22-19-3) did the rest and made the fans happy they came out by sweeping the two-game set against Prince George (20-23-1).
Forsberg has 16 goals on the season, and now his first three in the two games with the Royals since being obtained in a trade Tuesday from the Saskatoon Blades. The five-foot-10 centre, taken first overall by the Cougars in the 2010 bantam draft, began his WHL career in Prince George and had an eventful night against his former teammates, even taking on six-foot-four defenceman Sam Ruopp in a fight.
“It was really sweet [scoring three] against my former team,” said Forsberg, who played three seasons for the Cougars before being traded this past off-season to Saskatoon.
“It was nice to get it [first career WHL hat-trick] against Prince George.”
Forsberg said there were no Cougars jawing against him on the ice.
“I’m still good friends with most of them,” he said. “The fight was a spur-of-the-moment thing. But [Ruopp] and I smiled at each other in the penalty box [after the fight].”
The Cougars got into deep penalty trouble early. The Royals made them pay dearly with power-play goals by Greg Chase and Brandon Magee, both on two-man advantages, by the time the game was four minutes old. Magee has been a career Cougar killer and now has 16 goals and 40 points in 34 games against Prince George in his five WHL seasons.
Forsberg made it 3-0 on a breakaway later in the first. It was the result of a surgical stretch pass from Tyler Soy, who extended his scoring streak to nine games with eight goals and seven assists in that stretch. Two more goals by Forsberg, including one on the power play, were followed by third-period Cougars counters by Brad Morrison and Josh Connolly. Goaltender Justin Paulic, acquired in a trade from Moose Jaw on Tuesday, made his Royals debut with a 26-save performance. Patrick Gora made 30 saves for PG.
The Royals finished a busy trade period by obtaining 18-year-old defenceman Bryton Sayers from Lethbridge on Saturday in exchange for a fifth-round bantam draft pick. Royals GM Cam Hope said the deal added veteran depth on the back end.
The Royals embark on a road swing through Red Deer on Friday, Calgary next Saturday and Edmonton next Sunday.
