VICTORIA 4 - TRI-CITY 3
At 30 years old, it’s still got legs. And usually two furry arms to match.
A great Canadian hockey tradition — which originated in the WHL in Kamloops in 1993 when Blazers forward and later two-time Stanley Cup champion Brad Lukowich scored the first Teddy Bear toss goal — played out Saturday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Dawson Pasternak scored the Victoria Royals’ first goal with six seconds remaining in the first period to unleash a torrent of stuffed toy animals thrown on to the ice for charity from the season-high crowd of 6,203.
The only thing that puts a damper on this annual night in rinks is if the home team loses. The trouble was the Tri-City Americans already had three first-period goals by the time the Royals connected for the first time through Pasternak. But Victoria wasn’t done and recorded another three goals in the second period through Cole Reschny, Logan Pickford and Pasternak’s second of the night en route to a 4-3 WHL comeback victory.
“It’s awesome having all you guys in the crowd,” Pasternak said on the PA following the game.
It was the rising Royal team’s sixth victory in its last seven games to move to 20-12-2. The last two wins, a sweep of the Americans on Blanshard, were without Robin Sapousek and Casper Haugen Evensen, who are in Sweden for the 2024 world junior championship tournament with Czechia and Norway, respectively.
It was the last game on the Island in a Tri-City jersey for graduating 20-year-old junior Parker Bell of Campbell River, the six-foot-four winger under NHL contract to the Calgary Flames, as the Amerks fell to 15-14-2.
At the other end of the age scale, Saturday was the fifth and final WHL regular-season game allowed to be played this season by Keaton Verhoeff, the Royals’ 15-year-old blueliner of the future, who was selected fourth overall by Victoria in the first round of this year’s WHL prospects draft. The young rearguard showed poise beyond his years and didn’t look out of place against players up to five years older.
“It felt pretty good. I just tried to play the way I can,” said Verhoeff, a native of Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., who plays for the Rink Hockey Academy Under-18 team in Kelowna under head coach and former NHL great Jarome Iginla.
“It’s good to see what it’s like to play at this level. Just getting the experience here was good.”
Finishing so low in the standings the past few seasons has paid off in one way for the Royals in that they were able to nab Verhoeff high in the draft this year after taking forward Reschny third overall in 2022. Reschny continued his fine rookie season for the Royals by scoring Saturday to show again why he is ranked for the second round of the 2025 NHL draft by Elite Prospects. Reschny and Verhoeff are the cornerstones of the Royals’ future.
“This team looks like it should have a good run this year and I think we should be able to keep progressing as we go along. It’s good to see what this place could look like in a couple of years,” said Verhoeff.
The Royals head into the Christmas break and will return to play the Vancouver Giants at the Langley Events Centre on Dec. 27 and the Wild in Wenatchee, Washington, on Dec. 28 before returning to the Memorial Centre to meet the Edmonton Oil Kings on Dec. 30 and Calgary Hitmen on Jan. 1.
ICE CHIPS: The WHL is represented by eight players on the Canadian team at the IIHF 2024 world junior championship tournament beginning Boxing Day in Gothenburg, Sweden.
