VANCOUVER 4 - VICTORIA 2
Victoria Royals coach Dan Price hasn’t gone all Jim Mora, mimicking the former NFL coach’s famous “playoffs?” tirade in 2001, when asked about his Colts’ lagging chances during a press conference.
Price is a different personality altogether, so that may never be coming. But he is quite aware of his team’s situation in the Western Hockey League following Saturday night’s 4-2 loss at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to the arch rival Vancouver Giants in the Cross-Strait Derby. It’s hard not to be.
The ninth-place Royals lost for the eighth time in a row and only have seven games remaining. They are 12 points adrift of the eighth and final playoff berth in the Western Conference with the eighth-place Kelowna Rockets holding two games in hand. It’s basically a case of Victoria having to win out and the Rockets having to lose out.
“We can’t hide from it. [The numbers] are right there in front of us,” said Price.
“If we get hot, we could be there at the end.”
The Royals need to get more than just hot, however. They need to turn the crank to incinerate and hope the Rockets turn Ice-Age cold.
“We have to play our hearts out in these final games and see what happens,” said Royals forward Tanner Scott, who scored on Saturday night.
“We are still positive and we always believe in each other.”
Injury woes, a common historical theme with the Royals, is again prevalent as the club was missing leading scorer Jake Poole, their San Jose Sharks NHL-signed captain Gannon Laroque, Reggie Newman, Danish junior national team import Marcus Almquist and import Robin Sapousek, who won silver with his homeland Czech team this year in the world junior championship.
“We pushed hard [Victoria outshot Vancouver 36-23] and I thought we deserved a better fate,” said Price.
“I feel for the guys to have so many [injured] missing bodies who play a lot of minutes. That catches up to you. We haven’t had a full line-up in three years.”
There are five Giants ranked by Central Scouting for the 2023 NHL draft with Samuel Honzek the ninth-rated North American-based skater, Jaden Lipinski 38th-ranked and Ty Halaburda 61st-ranked.
The others are Mazden Leslie at 80thand Ethan Semeniuk at 173rd. The lone Royals player ranked is former Canada Under-18 defenceman Kalem Parker at 113th.
Victoria-raised Halaburda always gets up for games against his hometown team and scored to make it 3-1 at 14:46 of the second period with his 18th goal of the season.
Lipinski, from Scottsdale, Arizona, added two assists. Carson Haynes scored an ice-length empty-netter from his knees
The talented and strapping six-foot-four Honzek, who represented his native Slovakia in the world junior championships, scored twice in Vancouver’s 4-2 victory over the Royals on Friday night at the Langley Events Centre but was held off the scoresheet Saturday.
The ever-pressing Scott and former Canada U-18 forward Brayden Schuurman scored for Victoria.
The Royals host the Prince George Cougars next Friday and Saturday nights at the Memorial Centre as the days continue to dwindle to a few.
