The Royals concluded one of the most dominating weeks of their five-year history in Victoria with a 5-1 matinee win Sunday over the Vancouver Giants at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
With the 8-0 whitewashing of Vancouver on Saturday night on Blanshard, the Royals outscored the Giants 13-1 in the two-game Western Hockey League sweep. Including last Wednesday’s 8-2 victory over the Medicine Hat Tigers, the Royals have outscored their opponents 21-3 over their last three games.
“We’re firing on all cylinders,” said Victoria forward Jared Dmytriw, who scored twice Sunday. “We have a lot of confidence in that room, offensively.”
And defensively, too.
The Royals came within less than two minutes of recording back-to-back shutouts — hard to do at any level — but Brennan Menell finally scored Vancouver’s lone goal of the weekend on a two-on-one break at 18:24 of the third period Sunday.
“I would have loved to have made that save to get the back-to-back shutouts,” said veteran Victoria goaltender Coleman Vollrath, who was trying to match rookie Griffen Outhouse’s shutout from the night before.
“But I was more concerned about getting the win, and I’m pleased with the result.”
The Royals have the second-most points and third-best winning percentage in the Western Conference at 29-15-5.
Vollrath and Outhouse are fashioning quite the tandem tale in the crease to help get Victoria to that perch.
Outhouse’s shutout Saturday was his third in just 17 appearances. The native of Likely, B.C., has a goals-against average of 1.92. That overtook Carter Hart of the Everett Silvertips, the top-ranked North American goaltender for the 2016 NHL draft, for the WHL lead. Vollrath is third in the WHL, after Outhouse and Hart (1.93), with a 2.46 average in his 37 appearances.
“Griffen and I are both competitors,” said the 20-year-old Vollrath.
“I [also] know that part of my role this season is to mentor Griffen [Outhouse turns 18 on March 13].”
Forward Tyler Soy scored in the sixth consecutive game for Victoria on Sunday. He has eight goals in those six games. The native of Cloverdale has also scored in nine of his last 10 games, and has recorded at least a point in 13 of his last 14 games. He has 20 points on 13 goals and seven assists in that 14-game run.
Ethan Price scored his fifth goal in his last three games while blueliner Joe Hicketts scored the other Royals goal Sunday.
“A lot of the [21 Royals goals on the week] have been greasy, garbage goals because we’re putting pucks and traffic to the net,” said Hicketts, who is under contract to the Detroit Red Wings.
“We have a lot of adaptability and four lines that can score.”
But both Vancouver and Medicine Hat are currently out of playoff positions and not likely to see the post-season. So this week’s lopsided Victoria performances need to be seen through that lens.
“We’ve had good execution on the offensive side,” noted Royals head coach Dave Lowry. “But we have to keep things in perspective. We were playing a [Giants] team this weekend that was missing key players.”
The injury-depleted Giants, who feature former Royals forward Taylor Crunk and veteran Nanaimo-product Chase Lang, simply couldn’t keep up with the Royals. Vancouver is in the midst of a draining streak of injuries and has been without its captain and projected 2016 first-round NHL draft pick Tyler Benson since Dec. 30 with a lower-body injury. There are hopes Benson will be ready for the Giants-hosted CHL Top Prospects game on Thursday, where he is due to captain Team Cherry at the Pacific Coliseum in the Rogers Sportsnet nationally-televised contest. Also out are 20-year-old veteran centre Carter Popoff and other mainstays Ty Ronning and Thomas Foster. The injuries have sapped the Giants (18-27-5) at a crucial time when they need all the help they can get. Vancouver is last in the Western Conference and eight points adrift of the final wildcard playoff slot held by Spokane, and have played four more games than the Chiefs.
Things will get considerably tougher for Victoria when it concludes its six-game home stand against the Eastern Conference and league-leading Lethbridge Hurricanes (36-12-0) on Friday at the Memorial Centre.
ICE CHIPS: Lowry on Sunday became the 43rd head coach in WHL history to reach the 200 career-win plateau. He had 59 victories in his lone season as Calgary Hitmen bench boss, one off the all-time record of 60 set by the 1980-81 Victoria Cougars, and has 141 wins in four seasons with the Royals.
