The Victoria Royals continued confounding the WHL B.C. Division standings. Thought to be also-rans this season behind Kamloops, Kelowna and Vancouver, the Royals climbed back into second place in the division with a 1-0 victory Wednesday night over the Rockets in Kelowna.
The Royals (22-13-2) went 4-1, all against B.C. Division teams, on their five-game, 13 night road swing.
Goaltender Shane Farkas continued stating his claim as the Royals team MVP to date. The 20-year-old native of Penticton recorded his second shutout of the road trip with a 29-save performance to be named game second star. Kelowna goaltender Roman Basran was named first star for his 25 saves, although one would think that positioning might have been reversed depending on the venue of the game.
Farkas has been a wall on the road trip in also shutting out the Vancouver Giants 1-0 and only allowing one goal in a 4-1 victory against Kamloop and a 2-1 victory earlier against Kelowna.
The only Victoria loss on the swing was a 5-1 decision against Kamloops, in which backup Brock Gould played goal.
The Rockets, who will host the Memorial Cup this year, fell to 21-15-3 after winning their previous two games.
Missing for Kelowna on Wednesday was captain Nolan Foote, who was available but did not dress, following his gold-medal performance with three goals for Canada at the 2020 world junior championship tournament which concluded last weekend in the Czech Republic
The Royals were missing their two import forwards, captain and Danish international Phillip Schulitz and Swiss rookie Keanu Derungs.
The only goal came early with Carson Miller following up the rebound on a two-on-one break after Basran made a outstanding save off Brandon Cutler just three minutes into the game.
After that, it became the Farkas and Basran revue.
It is a tradition among WHL clubs that returning Canadian world junior players are given a respite in the week after the world juniors concludes. That’s why Foote was given the night off Wednesday and why the status of Joel Hofer, the Canadian team 2020 world junior gold-medallist goaltender, is not known for when the Portland Winterhawks come into Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Friday and Saturday for a set against the Royals.
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