The Victoria Royals went veteran-heavy in defeating the Tri-City Americans 4-2 in a neutral-site game Sunday afternoon in Everett, Washington, to move to 2-1 in the Western Hockey League preseason.
“We had three games in 21Ú2 days with lots of travel,” explained Royals head coach Dave Lowry.
“I want to give the young [hopefuls] the right kinds of opportunities to have success.”
In other words, even youthful rookie legs get weary. It was time to insert some rested veterans who sat out the first two games.
Returning 20-year-old over-ager Jack Walker scored twice for Victoria, including one into an empty net, and added an assist. Blake Bargar and Gunnar Wegleitner, two newcomers who have shown well through training camp and the early preseason, scored once each.
Bargar, a product of the Arizona Bobcat youth hockey program, continues to intrigue. The native of Torrance, California, also scored in the 6-5 loss to the Rockets in Kelowna on Saturday and recorded a hat trick in the Blue-White intrasquad game last week.
The five-foot-11 powerpack is a hard-nosed 18-year-old who had two goals, eight points and 73 penalty minutes in 119 WHL games over the past two seasons for the Moose Jaw Warriors. Bargar was acquired by the Royals in a rather innocuous May trade for a conditional eighth-round bantam draft pick, but he could be a surprise find. Bargar looks to be reminiscent of returning Royals forward Ethan Price, a Portland Winterhawks discard, who was quietly picked up last preseason and who eventually contributed to Victoria’s WHL regular-season championship run as a pesky and energetic forward. These are the kinds of depth players out of which Lowry manages to mine solid playing minutes.
“[Bargar] brings an element we thought we were lacking … grit … and he can score,” said Lowry.
Lowry, however, said the Royals aren’t emphasizing goal production with Bargar as much as they are the other aspects he brings to the mix.
The six-foot-one Wegleitner played 43 games for the Everett Silvertips in 2014-15 with one goal and is another 18-year-old with WHL experience, although his 2015-16 was incomplete with only 14 games played for the Surrey Eagles of the B.C. Hockey League. He scored the most impressive goal of the intra-squad game, on a laser shot, from the right side.
The Royals played 14 WHL veterans and six rookies Sunday. With Bargar and Wegleitner factored in, the mix included 12 Royals returnees and eight newcomers. On Saturday in Kelowna, the Royals dressed 11 WHL veterans and nine rookies.
Veteran Griffen Outhouse went the entire way in goal Sunday for Victoria and made 23 saves. Rookie Dean McNabb was dressed in reserve. The Royals put 34 shots on the Tri-City net.
The Royals returnees not dressed Sunday were Dante Hannoun, who had four goals over the first two exhibition games, Ryan Peckford, Regan Nagy and Brayden Pachal.
Victoria’s power play was 1-6 and Tri-City’s 0-3.
The Royals’ only home pre-season date is Saturday at 2 p.m. at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre against the Vancouver Giants.
