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pontcanna
10-21-2011, 12:07 AM
Carroll a Royal pain for the opposition

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM OCTOBER 20, 2011 10:32 PM


Austin Carroll is the Victoria Royals’ answer to John Wayne in The Quiet Man.

While Kevin Sundher is top-five in Western Hockey League scoring with 21 points and Robin Soudek is in the top-10 in goals with eight, Carroll goes about his business on the Royals’ first line in relative anonymity.

The top line leads the Royals (6-5) into weekend road action tonight at 7:30 against the Giants in Vancouver and Saturday evening at 7 against the Rockets in Kelowna. The Giants (4-5-1) were playing the Rockets (3-5-1) in a game Thursday night.

“It’s my role to go in the corners and make space for Kevin and Robin and I’m fine with that,” said the six-foot-four, 205-pound Carroll, a Canadian raised in the unlikely hockey setting of Scottsdale, Arizona.

“Those are two skilled guys [linemates Sundher and Soudek] and I try to create room and chances for them with my big body and do things like screen the goalie. It’s a privilege to play on the top line with them.”

And Carroll is good at his rather unheralded job, jumping from the third to first line this season. Carroll’s seven points on a goal and six assists don’t fully tell the tale of his understated importance to a Royals team that has surprised many observers this season. Considering he was a fourth liner last season in the B.C. Hockey League with the Coquitlam Express, his rise within a year to first-liner in the WHL is impressive.

Carroll also played baseball and field lacrosse, however, his Canadian hockey genes soon kicked in. But growing up in the desert — parents Phil and Jennifer moved to Scottsdale from Calgary when Austin was six — it wasn’t easy to follow an ice dream.

Yet in many ways, Carroll benefited from growing up in a small but tight-knit hockey community. Everybody who plays hockey in Greater Phoenix pretty much knows each other — right up to the top level.

“I watched Coyotes [NHL] and Roadrunners [ECHL] games and you get to know even the pros when you play hockey down there,” said Carroll.

There aren’t many places to skate in the desert and youth hockey players will run across Coyote players sooner or later.

“The Coyotes practised at the Ice Den [in Scottsdale] and would invite us kids onto the ice to skate with them after practice,” said Carroll.

With few teams nearby, Carroll’s peewee, bantam and midget rep squads would travel to play games in Chicago and Detroit.

That led to getting noticed by the Canadian junior system, in which Carroll started in last season with six goals and five assists in 46 games with the Express of the BCHL.

Carroll turns 18 in March and tonight represents another opportunity to make an impression in his draft season.

“I’m looking forward to a successful year, for myself and for the team,” he said.

The Royals embark a four-game road trip that takes them through Vancouver tonight and Kelowna Saturday,

Tri-City on Tuesday and Spokane on Wednesday before a seven-game homestand that begins next Friday and Saturday with a set against Seattle.

ICE CHIPS: Royals head coach Marc Habscheid said he wants to give 17-year-old goalie Jared Rathjen, back-up to starter Keith Hamilton, his first WHL start “sooner rather than later” but has not named his starter for tonight . . . Look for Prince George-raised Rathjen to get in at some point on this road trip . . . Injured forward Brandon Magee (lower body) is still listed day-to-day but is expected to make the trip . . . The 19-year-old veteran blue-liners Zach Habscheid and Tyler Stahl (both out with concussions) will not make the road trip.