GAME DAY: VICTORIA VS. RED DEER
6:30 p.m. at the ENMAX Centrium
Radio: The Zone 91.3 FM / TV: Sportsnet Pacific
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The adventure that is known as the unofficial first half of the Western Hockey League season comes to a close on Alberta ground this weekend.
The Victoria Royals disband and go their separate ways for Christmas after tonight and Saturday’s stops in Red Deer and Edmonton, and it will be a very light load that returns on the bus back to Vancouver Island.
With seven Alberta products in their lineup, the Royals will have plenty of support in the stands over the next two evenings and players will then join their families for the holidays.
“It’ll be nice to head back home, back to Alberta where there’s some snow on the ground and it’ll actually feel like Christmas,” said Royals defenceman Keegan Kanzig, whose family hails from Fort Saskatchewan, just northeast of Edmonton. “I’m looking forward to that and spending time with friends.
“But there’s some work to do before we can put our feet up,” he insisted.
Work, indeed, as tonight the Royals face the Rebels (6:30 on Sportsnet), one of the hottest teams in the WHL at 8-1-1-0 in its last 10 games. With owner Brent Sutter back at the helm, Red Deer had won nine straight before losing 5-4 in overtime to Brandon, then dropping a 2-1 decision to Calgary on Wednesday.
Then it’s the defending WHL-champion Oil Kings on Saturday.
“It will be good to play in Edmonton where I’ll have some friends and family,” admitted Vermilion, Alta., native Jamie Crooks. “It’ll be a nice break afterwards, but it hasn’t started yet. We’ve got a couple of games left and a lot of work to do before we can relax. We have to focus on these games and then we’ll worry about [Christmas break] later.”
Among the other Alberta recruits on the Royals’ roster are Brandon Magee (Edmonton), Logan Fisher (Red Deer), Jesse Zgraggen (Lethbridge), Tyler Stahl (Drumheller) and Coleman Vollrath (Calgary).
So being close to home will benefit one-third of the roster, while the remainder either fly on to hometowns from Edmonton or are B.C. products who will be dropped off along the way back.
“The whole purpose was to pick a central location where you can drop guys off and they get that extra day to spread out with their family as opposed to coming all the way back and travelling. It’ll be a thin bus,” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry, who will have a reunion of sorts tonight with Sutter.
Lowry worked as his assistant the last three years in Calgary with the National Hockey League’s Flames.
No one knows just what Sutter is capable of getting out of his recruits better than Lowry.
“Going into Brandon, they had won nine in a row and they lost the 10th in overtime. You always know with Brent’s team, they’re going to play hard and they’re going to compete. Everything they do is going to be directed off of that,” said Lowry, who is keeping his team focused on the task at hand before the holidays kick in.
But they will all admittedly enjoy the break, once it comes.
“Not a whole lot of plans,” said Crooks. “We’ll have some family and friends down to Vermilion. Just relax and hang out with friends and family and maybe spend some time on the [frozen] pond.”
Even the usually stoic Lowry admitted to using the break to share a special time with family.
“It will be real nice,” he said of his own clan that will gather in Victoria, including sons Joel and Adam, who play in Cornell University of the ECAC and Swift Current of the WHL, respectively.
Adam was just in Victoria last weekend to face the Royals.
“It’s always nice to see them and the other day was a unique situation where we had a great visit after the game,” said coach Lowry.
But did the strapping six-foot-five, 200-pound Swift Current star leave anything in the Lowry household’s fridge?
“I made sure he didn’t get in the house,” his father said with a chuckle.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Rebels and Oil Kings were both given a boost Thursday as Red Deer defenceman Matt Dumba and Edmonton goalie Laurent Brossoit were late cuts from Canada’s wold junior team camp in Calgary. Oil Kings defenceman Griffin Reinhart did make the final Canadian roster of 23 players.
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