It’s just the teams’ fourth game of the Western Hockey League season — second against each other — and already the heat has been cranked up between the Victoria Royals and Kamloops Blazers.
Plenty of penalties and a near-full line brawl helped Saturday night’s game at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre hit a boiling point before the Royals skated away with a hard-fought 6-3 victory. The win keeps the Royals perfect on the season at 4-0. The Blazers drop to 2-2.
After giving up a last-minute goal to the Royals on Friday that gave the home team the win, the Blazers came charging out of the gate with a quick 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Brodi Stuart and Dallas Stars draft pick Jermaine Loewen.
But Brandon Cutler brought the 4,808 in attendance to life with a late first-period goal from a scramble in front of Blazers veteran netminder and Las Vegas Golden Knights draft pick Dylan Ferguson.
After the two teams battled to get it to three-apiece, a hit from behind penalty by Stuart sparked retaliation by Royals forwards Tanner Sidaway and Tyler Lees with both players getting fighting majors and Lees, along with Blazers blue-liner Jonas Sillanpaa, game misconducts.
The scraps ignited the Royals, who got goals from Dante Hannoun and Phillip Schultz before the third period was two minutes old to send the Royals to victory.
Dino Kambeitz and D-Jay Jerome had the Royals’ goals in the second period. Tarun Fizur added the empty-netter with 47 seconds left in the third.
Griffen Outhouse got the win in goal for the Royals, making 35 saves, while Ferguson, who hails from Lantzville, finished with 29 stops.
The Royals, who play eight of their first 10 games at the Memorial Centre, now head out on their first road trip of the season. They’ll take on the Rockets in Kelowna on Friday and then head up to Kamloops on Saturday to face the Blazers again.
LOOSE PUCKS: Prior to Saturday’s game, the Royals cut their 20-year-old numbers down by one. Victoria traded forward Lane Zablocki to Kelowna for a conditional seventh-round pick in the 2019 WHL bantam draft and a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2021 WHL bantam draft. Zablocki, a Westaskiwin, Alta., product, was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in the third round of the 2017 NHL draft. In 65 regular season games split between Lethbridge, Red Deer and Victoria last season, Zablocki had 31 points.
