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CdnSailor
09-24-2011, 12:08 AM
Vancouver Giants beat Royals 5-2 in Victoria team's WHL debut
Royals scored their first goals, now they're going for first win in home opener Saturday


VANCOUVER — It was the Victoria Royals' WHL debut, so, naturally, it was a night of firsts.

But it was on enemy territory, and the Pacific Coliseum public address announcer underscored the challenge, introducing the Vancouver Giants Friday night as "arguably the most successful Western Hockey League franchise of the past 10 years."

The Victoria Royals weren't arguing with that assessment as the Giants spoiled the Royals' WHL debut with a 5-2 victory.

Victoria's home curtain raiser is at 7 tonight at a sold-out Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre against the same Giants, who look to be a troublesome rival.

Despite the loss, the game was noteworthy for Victoria hockey because everything on the night was a Royals first.

Forward Steven Hodges tapped home the first goal in Royals history, on a scrambly sort of play, at 1:35 of the third period. That cut Vancouver's lead to 3-1.

The first shot in Royals history came from a Vancouver Island boy, rookie defenceman Kade Pilton of Parksville, from the point at the five-minute mark.

The first Royals hit was delivered by defenceman Zach Habscheid, who later also recorded the first penalty a Royal has taken, at 5:35 of the first period for hooking. The first Victoria Royals save was made by starting 20-year-old goaltender Braden Gamble.

The first goal in a Royals game, however, went to Anthony Ast of the Giants at 18:22 of the first period. Second-period goals by Marek Tvrdon and Cain Franson made it 3-0 at the second break.

Newly minted captain Hayden Rintoul led the Royals onto the ice Friday for their first-ever WHL regular-season game under that banner, although the franchise played the five previous seasons in the Fraser Valley as the Chilliwack Bruins.

"I'm very proud to be the first-ever captain of the Victoria Royals," the 20-year-old defenceman Rintoul told reporters before the start of the game.

The steadily reliable Rintoul was anointed with the "C" Friday by head coach Marc Habscheid, who also named 19-year-old forward and Buffalo Sabres draft pick Kevin Sundher, 19-year-old rearguard and Carolina Hurricanes draft pick Tyler Stahl and 17-year-old dynamo Brandon Magee as the assistant captains.

They were all part of history Friday as Victoria returned to the WHL for the first time in 17 years.

Victoria has been out of the WHL since the Cougars departed to Prince George following the 1993-94 season after 23 WHL seasons in the capital, the last five in which the dismal club consecutively missed the playoffs.

Friday began a new WHL era for Victoria.

The Royals operated the last five seasons in Chilliwack before being bought in the off-season for a reported $5.5 million by RG Properties owner Graham Lee of Vancouver. As well as owning the Royals and the now-defunct professional Victoria Salmon Kings of the ECHL, Lee's RG Properties operates the city-owned Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

pontcanna
09-24-2011, 01:05 AM
Giants spoil Royals WHL debut

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM SEPTEMBER 23, 2011 11:01 PM

VANCOUVER — Forward Steven Hodges earned for himself a place in Victoria history Friday night at the Pacific Coliseum by becoming the first Royals player to score a Western Hockey League regular-season goal.

It came at 1:35 of the third period, but wasn’t enough as the Vancouver Giants skated to a 5-2 victory.

“It’s exciting to score a franchise-first goal,” said Hodges.

The puck was scooped up and saved for the Royals.

“But I would have preferred the two points to that [historic] first goal,” added Hodges.

“It’s not the type of intensity we wanted to come out with. We didn’t have the jump to start. We picked up steam later, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”

Royals coach and GM Marc Habscheid put the opener down to the growing pains of a young team.

“We played in spurts and had our chances,” he said.

“The first period [which ended 1-0 for Vancouver] was jitters. But the compete level just was not there in the second period [which ended 3-0] and we were easy to play against. In the third period, we brought it but it was too late. We need to learn from what we did do and did not do tonight.”

Vancouver coach Don Hay said he realizes the momentous nature of tonight’s first-ever home game for the Royals, returning the WHL to the capital for the first time in 17 years.

“But first we’ve got to concentrate on our home opener,” he said, before Friday’s game between the Royals and his Giants.

Hay, who will coach Canada in the 2012 world junior championships over Christmas, is never one to get ahead of himself. And sure enough, his boys took care of business in their 2011-12 home debut before 6,818 fans at the PNE Pacific Coliseum to ruin the Royals’ debut after playing the previous five seasons in Chilliwack as the Bruins.

If it wasn’t for Victoria goaltender Braden Gamble, an overage 20-year holdover from Bruins days, the result could have been much worse. Vancouver had 33 shots on goal, many of them close-in. Victoria had 28 shots on Giants goaltender Brendan Jensen.

The first period was a self-inflicted ordeal by fire for the Royals, due to a series of penalties, as the Giants outshot Victoria 11-4.

In the second period, the Giants pressure paid off with a goal by Mark Tvrdon at 12:06 to make it 2-0. Cain Franson officially began turning Victoria’s coming out party into a bit of a Carrie-like nightmare by making it 3-0 at 18:11 of the second.

Hodges’s landmark goal gave the Royals brief hope in the third period. But Jordan Martinook made it 4-1 for Vancouver with a shorthanded effort at 9:35 as the Royals debut continued to unravel. Czech import Robin Soudek scored the second goal in Royals history at 15:30 before Dalton Sward of Vancouver closed out scoring with an empty-netter at 19:11.

And all this was without the Giants having forward Brendan Gallagher in their lineup. The Giants leading scorer last season is still in camp with the Montreal Canadiens. But Vancouver did have six-foot-four defenceman David Musil, a 2011 second-round NHL draft pick who has just returned from the Edmonton Oilers camp.