PRINCE GEORGE 8 - VICTORIA 3
The Victoria Royals have been put out of their misery.
They have been officially eliminated from contention in the Western Hockey League playoff race.
That was assured Friday night by Victoria’s 8-3 loss to the Prince George Cougars combined with the Kelowna Rockets’ 4-3 shootout victory over the Vancouver Giants.
The Royals (15-40-7) have six games remaining and are 14 points adrift of the eighth and final playoff berth in the Western Conference behind Kelowna and cannot overtake the Rockets.
Victoria’s dismal season continued Friday night with the loss to the Cougars at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The touted Cougars pair of Koehn Ziemmer and Riley Heidt, the 20th and 26th ranked North American skaters, respectively, for the 2023 NHL draft, were again highly active with Ziemmer recording a goal and assist and Heidt his 61st assist of the season.
WHL third-leading point-getter Chase Wheatcroft continued his terrorizing pace against the Royals this season with a goal, his 43rd of the season, and an assist and now has 15 points on eight goals and seven assists in six games against Victoria.
Zac Funk and Ondrej Becher led Prince George with two goals. Teydon Trembecky, Nate Misskey and Riley Gannon scored for the Royals.
Tyler Brennan, a fourth-round NHL draft pick of the New Jersey Devils, made 25 saves in goal for the Cougars.
Prince George is well set in the crease. Its other goaltender is Ty Young, a fifth-round draft pick of the Vancouver Canucks. Braden Holt and Nicholas Cristiano combined to make 22 saves for the Royals.
Victoria’s injury situation was again a factor.
The missing included the Royals’ San Jose Sharks-signed captain Gannon Laroque, team leading-scorer Jake Poole, Czech world junior championship silver-medallist Robin Sapousek and Danish junior national-team player Marcus Almquist.
The Cougars (32-24-5) and Royals meet again this evening at 6 p.m. in the Memorial Centre.
ICE CHIPS: The Royals commemorated their graduating 20-year-old players before the game and presented forwards Poole, Gannon and Alex Thacker with framed jerseys.
