There was a bit of symmetry to the match-up at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The Victoria Royals began an eight-game road trip this month with a 5-2 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Washington. The Royals first game back from the extended swing, in which they went 4-3-1, was on Friday night before 3,575 fans against the Thunderbirds to begin a six-game home stand.
Turnabout is fair play as the Thunderbirds recorded a 3-2 Western Hockey League shootout victory.
Royals forward Cole Reschny continued his big week by opening scoring at 5:09 of the second period following a scoreless opening frame.
The elusive forward, ranked for the first round of the 2025 NHL draft, picked up scoring-wise where he left off when he recorded the late 3-2 winning goal for the Canadian Hockey League team against the U.S. Under-18 team in the CHL-USA Prospects Challenge series game Wednesday in Oshawa, Ont.
The Royals (13-8-5) came out complacent in the third period and it cost them as Seattle goals by former Cowichan Valley Capitals forward Arjun Bawa, son of former NHLer Robin Bawa from Duncan, and Owen Boucher put the T-Birds ahead 2-1. Reschny’s cunning slyness was on display at 7:04 as he intercepted a Seattle pass behind the net and astutely one-timed the puck to Nanaimo-product Brayden Boehm in front and who banged it into the gaping net with the Seattle goaltending and defence out of position to make it 2-2.
Jayden Kraus, coming off an outstanding 46-save performance Wednesday in Everett against the WHL-leading and CHL No. 4-ranked Silvertips, had another strong outing with 39 saves. Scott Ratzlaff, a 2023 fifth-round NHL draft pick of the Buffalo Sabres, made 30 saves in goal for the Thunderbirds.
The Thunderbirds, in a rebuild after trading a ferry-load of future WHL prospects draft picks to load up in winning the 2023 WHL championship, are in a rebuild and 9-13-3. The head coaches, Victoria’s James Patrick and Seattle’s Matt O’Dette, know well each other tendencies. O’Dette’s Thunderbirds beat Patrick’s Winnipeg Ice in the 2023 WHL final to win the second league title in franchise history.
The Royals and Thunderbirds meet again tonight at 6 p.m. in the Memorial Centre.
ICE CHIPS: Seattle head coach O’Dette knows the Memorial Centre visitors bench well also as a player who skated six seasons for the Fresno Falcons and Stockton Thunder in the ECHL against the Victoria Salmon Kings. “Those were great days and this was always a fun building to play in because the Salmon Kings had great fans,” recalled O’Dette, during a 2023 visit by the Thunderbirds to Blanshard Street.
