With apologies to Three Dog Night, one remained the loneliest number for the Victoria Royals.
Victoria headed into Tuesday night’s 6-3 Western Hockey League loss in Spokane against the Chiefs with a magic number of one. Any combination of a Royals win or overtime/shootout loss, or a loss by the ninth-place Tri-City Americans, will clinch for Victoria a post-season berth.
Victoria can clinch tonight by backing into the playoffs if the Americans lose in Kelowna against the Rockets.
The Royals (28-25-9) have six regular-season games remaining and are in Everett on Friday against the Silvertips and back at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Saturday against the Silvertips for the back end of their home-and-home set. The Royals will conclude the regular season this month with two home games each against the Prince George Cougars and Wenatchee Wild.
The loss in Spokane was costly for the Royals in keeping fifth-place Victoria one point behind the Wenatchee Wild in the Western Conference race for fourth place and the home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs that goes with it. The Wild have two games in hand on the Royals.
Looking the other way, sixth-place Vancouver is closing fast and three points behind Victoria while seventh-place Kelowna is five points behind the Royals, with the Giants and Rockets each with two games in hand on Victoria. Mathematically, the Royals could even be overtaken by Spokane (26-28-6), which holds down the eighth and final playoff berth in the conference.
The Royals are after their first post-season appearance since 2018-19 after the pandemic forced the cancellations of the 2020 and 2021 playoffs and Victoria failed to qualify for the post-seasons in 2022 and 2023.
Forward Berkly Catton showed why he is ranked by The Hockey News as the sixth overall selection for the 2024 NHL draft by scoring a hat-trick against Victoria on Tuesday to move his season goals total to 48 and extend his points streak to 14 games on a four-point night.
The slippery Cole Reschny scored for Victoria as last week’s named top WHL rookie notched his fourth goal and recorded his sixth point in his last three games to show why he is projected for the second round of the 2025 NHL draft. Casper Haugen Evensen, the compact yet quick forward who represented Norway in the 2024 world junior championship in January in Sweden, added two goals for the Royals on a three-point night.
Braden Holt made 29 saves in goal for Victoria while Dawson Cowan blocked 27 shots for Spokane as the Royals concluded their four-game season set against the Chiefs 2-2.
