The Victoria Royals will close out their pre-Christmas account in the Western Hockey League tonight and Saturday against two of the best prospects in the B.C. Division for the 2019 NHL draft.
Goaltender Taylor Gauthier, projected for the second or third rounds, and his division last-place Prince George Cougars teammates are at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre tonight. That will be followed by defenceman Bowen Byram, projected for the first round of next spring’s NHL draft, and the division-leading Vancouver Giants gracing Blanshard Street on Saturday night.
Gauthier and Byram were announced Thursday as among the 16 WHL players from 12 teams named for the 24th annual CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game to be held Jan. 23 in Red Deer. The Royals are among 10 WHL teams who did not have a player selected to participate among the 40 players invited from the WHL, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The OHL received 15 invites from 12 teams and the QMJHL nine invites from nine teams.
“We have to establish a presence in front of Gauthier [tonight] and take away his sightlines and not let him find the puck,” said Royals head coach Dan Price.
Blue-liner Byram, of course, presents a different sort of matchup challenge Saturday.
“He jumps up from the back so quickly that you have to be aware every time he touches the puck,” said Price.
The reeling Cougars are 11-17-3 and on a three-game losing skid and 2-8 in their last 10 games. The surging Giants are 21-6-2 and on a seven-game winning streak. Despite the Cougars’ and Giants’ divergent trajectories, the Royals feel they have scores to settle with both those teams this weekend.
Victoria won the first game of a two-game set last week in Prince George before the Cougars won the second game.
“That second contest is still on our players’ minds because we felt we didn’t play a complete game like the night before,” said Price.
As far as the Giants go, there is an uncanny symmetry to Saturday’s matchup because it is the Royals’ annual Teddy Bear Toss game for charity. The Royals were the visitors for the Giants’ Teddy Bear game last Saturday and had the frustrated Vancouver fans anxiously gripping their stuffed toys until Byram finally scored to tie the game 1-1 with just 1:19 remaining in regulation time. How sweet would it have been for the Royals to shut out their arch rivals on that of all nights? Then to salt the wound, former Royals forward and now-Giants captain Jared Dmytriw scored the winner for Vancouver in overtime to bedevil his former team.
“That game in Vancouver is something our guys want to rectify,” said Price.
Meanwhile, Victoria goaltender Griffen Outhouse’s next victory will be the 100th of his career in the regular-season and will put him in rarefied company as only the 16th goalie in WHL history to reach the century plateau for wins.
Ten more wins gets Outhouse to seventh place all-time on the list, which looks doable. The over-ager from Likely, B.C., however, will need 22 more wins this season to surpass the all-time record of 120 co-held by Corey Hirsch and Tyson Sexsmith.
Regardless of where he ends up on the career list for WHL wins, Outhouse has been a cornerstone of the Royals franchise for four seasons.
“It’s his consistency and work ethic,” said Price.
“Griffen prepares thoroughly each day.”
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