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Despite stumble in Portland, Victoria Royals have eyes on second

The Victoria Royals and Vancouver Giants can’t seem to give away home-ice advantage for the first round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.
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Brayden Tracey had the lone Royals goal on Sunday.

The Victoria Royals and Vancouver Giants can’t seem to give away home-ice advantage for the first round of the Western Hockey League playoffs. They each came away with one of a possible four points in weekend away sets in Portland and Prince George, respectively.

“It’s a funny time of year. Everyone is tuning up, yet points are harder to come by than ever,” said Royals GM Cameron Hope.

The Giants’ road bump was more surprising against the lowly Cougars, who managed to keep their slim playoff hopes on life support.

“Prince George is a good team, but for the fact it’s in a tough division in which to make the playoffs,” said Hope.

Vancouver (32-24-6), which recently went on an 11-game winning streak in a 13-1 tear, is winless in the four games since at 0-3-1. The Royals (31-24-8) and Giants are on 70 points each in second place in the B.C. Division, but Victoria has five games remaining to Vancouver’s six. The Kamloops Blazers, who have won six consecutive games, have clinched the division crown.

The fourth-place Kelowna Rockets can mathematically overtake the Royals and Giants, but that seems unlikely, even with Kelowna’s recent revival. The Rockets trail Vancouver and Victoria by six points with only six games remaining. The Royals are taking nothing for granted.

“We play in Kelowna on Wednesday, while Vancouver and Kelowna play each other twice down the stretch, so a few results going certain ways could change things,” said Hope.

“These all feel like playoff games already.”

The Royals followed their 5-4 overtime defeat Saturday in Portland with a 4-1 loss to the Winterhawks on Sunday. It was a track meet with the goaltenders named the first-two stars of the game. Joel Hofer, who backstopped Canada to the gold medal in the 2020 IIHF world junior championship in the Czech Republic, made 37 saves for the Winterhawks. Adam Evanoff made 29 saves for Victoria against the highest-scoring team in the WHL.

“Despite the score, it was one of our best road games of the year. We had more and better chances than we did Saturday,” said Victoria head coach Dan Price.

Veteran Jake Gricius, the 20-year-old who scored the overtime winner on Saturday, also scored on Sunday for Portland. Cross Hanas, rated for the second or third rounds of the 2020 NHL draft, had a goal on a two-point game. The ’Hawks’ slippery Seth Jarvis, the No. 19-ranked North American skater for the NHL draft, had an assist for his league second-leading 98th point of the season.

Victoria’s lone goal came on the power play from Brayden Tracey as the Anaheim Ducks’ first-round draft pick extended his points streak to three games with two goals and two assists in that span.

Portland, No. 6 in the weekly Canadian Hockey League top-10 poll, moved to 45-11-7.

Portland hockey fans didn’t seem too concerned about public gatherings. There were 7,777 people out to watch Sunday’s game at the Moda Center, which is also the home of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. Attendance on Saturday at the old Veterans Memorial Coliseum was 6,023.

Victoria’s roster looked to be becoming whole after a recent rash of injuries, as forward Ty Yoder returned to the lineup Sunday following forward Kaid Oliver and defenceman Jacob Herauf doing the same Saturday. But then forward Riley Gannon was struck in the face by a deflected puck during practice in Portland and will be out week-to-week. Still out were forward Graeme Bryks, defenceman Noah Lamb and goaltender Shane Farkas.

The Royals headed back across the border to play the Rockets in Kelowna on Wednesday, before returning to Blanshard Street to host Prince George on Friday and Saturday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com