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CdnSailor
11-23-2011, 11:43 PM
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/VictoriaRoyals.gif at http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/KamloopsBlazers.gif

Victoria comes into Blazer town with a two game loosing streak.
Victoria and Kamloops are meeting for the 2nd time this season with the Royals losing 8-2 in Kamloops.
Kamloops is currently in 2nd place in the BC Division 2 Pts behind the Giants and 6 PTS ahead of the 3rd place Royals.

Kamloops Blazers 22 14 7 1 0 =29 PTS 0-1-1-0 STK 5-4-1-0 P10 401 PIM
Victoria Royals 24 11 12 0 1 = 23 PTS 0-2-0-0 STK 3-6-0-1 P10 450 PIM

pontcanna
11-25-2011, 12:38 AM
Redemption on Royals' minds

By Cleve Dheensaw, timescolonist.com November 24, 2011 10:16 PM

The nickname Redeem Team has already been taken by the 2008 U.S. Olympic basketball squad. But you get the idea the Victoria Royals, losers of five of their last six Western Hockey League games, have that same sort of mantra in mind as they swing through the Interior this weekend.

“We had a good week of practice and we’re looking to redeem ourselves,” said Royals forward Steven Hodges.

Victoria (11-12-1) is in Kamloops tonight to play the Blazers (14-7-1) and at Kelowna on Saturday to take on the Rockets (9-11-3). Both games start at 7 p.m.

The Royals, outscored 19-6 in their last two games, have allowed a league-worst 121 goals in 24 games and will be looking to tighten up.

“The forwards have to come back and work as hard on defence as on offence,” said Hodges, the 24th-ranked WHL skater in the preliminary 2012 NHL draft rankings released earlier this month by Central Scouting.

“We have to play structurally well. Every player has to contribute on all parts of the ice.”

The quick-skating Hodges said he isn’t dwelling on his draft ranking.

“Team goals come first,” he said.

“Good team success will have an impact on individual success.”

And team defence certainly wasn’t far from mind for Royals GM and head coach Marc Habscheid.

“We went through a lot of video,” he said, of this week’s preparation.

“It’s almost like we were running around [the last two games] with our heads cut off. But structure leads to confidence. So we talked a lot about structure. That will help.”

About the high goals against, Habscheid noted: “When we lose, we lose big. But no doubt, we have to get better defensively.”

The Royals return from their mini road trip to face Kamloops in a back-to-back home set Tuesday and Wednesday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

ICE CHIPS: Welcome to Island life. The Royals travel plans were disrupted Thursday by the multiple weather-caused ferry cancellations. Scheduled to take the 1 p.m. sailing from Swartz Bay, the team did not get on until a later sailing. “It’s the way things are. We knew that coming in. It’s a part of it [being an Island team],” said Habscheid . . .

The Royals released veteran forward Brendan Persley, who had a goal in nine games this season after missing training camp and the early part of the campaign due to mono. Persley had five goals and eight points in 43 games last season when the franchise was based in Chilliwack . . .

Tomorrow is coming into view as the Royals signed two 16-year-olds from Calgary — goaltender Coleman Vollrath and blue-liner Brodie Clowes — to WHL contracts. Both were taken in the 2010 bantam draft. Vollrath is in his second season of midget with the Calgary Buffaloes and sports a goals-against average of 3.58, while the six-foot-two Clowes has a goal and nine assists in 25 games with the Olds Grizzlies of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

the Royal Flush
11-25-2011, 10:31 AM
put the 16 years old right between the pipes...we need a goalie!!!

50sWHLer
11-25-2011, 01:54 PM
Come on Royal Swoosh, ---- Golly, Jeepers!--- Who got you most of the WINs to date??

How many games have the Royals been severely outshot? --- and you're blaming the goal Tender?? ------- Where's the 'D' ?? We NEED OFFENSE too !

GOAL TENDING IS OK, THANK YOU !!

Come on L'll Buddy. ' GIVE YOUR HEAD A SHAKE' :o

the Royal Flush
11-25-2011, 04:23 PM
Come on Royal Swoosh, ---- Golly, Jeepers!--- Who got you most of the WINs to date??

How many games have the Royals been severely outshot? --- and you're blaming the goal Tender?? ------- Where's the 'D' ?? We NEED OFFENSE too !

GOAL TENDING IS OK, THANK YOU !!

Come on L'll Buddy. ' GIVE YOUR HEAD A SHAKE' :o


BACK TO THE MEDS...

CdnSailor
11-26-2011, 12:13 AM
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/KamloopsBlazers.gif 4 http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/VictoriaRoyals.gif 1

Game Highlights
http://youtu.be/x-xFmFbRCKE

1st Period
Blazers 1st goal by Dylan Willick

2nd Period
Blazers 2nd goal by Chase Schaber

3rd Period

Blazers 3rd goal by Colin Smith
Royals 1st goal by Kevin Sundher (PP)
Blazers 4th goal by Dylan Willick (EN)

Attendance: 3725

SCORING 1 2 3 Total
Victoria Royals 0 0 1 1
Kamloops Blazers 1 1 2 4

SHOTS 1 2 3 Total
Victoria Royals 6 8 4 18
Kamloops Blazers 13 19 8 40



3 Stars
1. KAM - 38 Cole Cheveldave
2. KAM - 11 Dylan Willick
3. KAM - 14 Matt Needham

Game Summary
http://www.whl.ca/schedule/show/game/59660

pontcanna
11-26-2011, 01:26 AM
Blazers add to Royals woes

By Cleve Dheensaw, timescolonist.com November 25, 2011 11:05 PM

There was a time, with three Memorial Cup national major junior championships, when just the mention of the Kamloops Blazers would send shivers down the spines of Western Hockey League opponents.

But that was in the 1990s when Seinfeld ruled on TV and the WHL Cougars were still in Victoria.

The Blazers, who haven’t made it past the first round of the playoffs since 1999, have lately been known more for futility. But call this the renaissance as Kamloops (15-7-1) continued its rebound season Friday night with a 4-1 victory over the Victoria Royals before 3,725 fans at the Interior Savings Centre.

Victoria (11-13-1) lost for the third straight time and the sixth time in seven games. The reeling Royals have been outscored 23-7 over their three-game losing skid.

“Things are not going our way, but we have to play through it,” said Royals GM and head coach Marc Habscheid.

An old problem — defensive zone coverage — came back to haunt Victoria as the Royals were outshot 32-14 over the first two periods. But the Royals managed to minimize the impact thanks in large part to goaltender Keith Hamilton, who turned back three Kamloops breakaways over the first two frames.

Yet it was in the middle area of the ice where Habscheid believes this game was lost.

“We had a lot of turnovers in the neutral zone,” he said.

“Our puck management in the neutral zone was not good. Out defence was better but our Achilles heel today was the neutral zone, where we turned over too many pucks. Our structure was a little better but we didn’t compete very hard. We can’t try pretty plays. We need to be a north-south team.”

Kamloops assistant captain and overage 20-year-old Dylan Willick scored at 5:16 of the first period and another undrafted 20-year-old, Blazers captain and Edmonton Oilers training camp invitee Chase Schaber, counted at 5:26 of the second period to put the hosts ahead by two.

The dagger was delivered by centre Colin Smith at 2:04 of the third period as he scored his 12th goal of the season through Hamilton’s legs just as Victoria had finished killing off a Zane Jones penalty for goaltender interference incurred at 20:00 of the second period.

The quicksilver Victoria forward Kevin Sundher, who will find out Monday if he has been named to the Canadian team for the 2012 world junior championships that begin later this month in Calgary and Edmonton, scored on a power-play breakaway at 16:09 of the third period to make it 3-1 and end Blazer goaltender Cole Cheveldave’s shutout bid.

Sundher appeared to have brought the Royals to within one just moments later but his apparent second goal was waved off after the referee ruled Cheveldave had been pushed into the net.

“I thought it was a bad call,” said Habscheid. “It was a goal, no question. Whether we would have won the game [if the goal had counted], I don’t know.”

Willick, who attended Minnesota Wild training camp this fall, sealed the deal with his 13th goal of the season, into an empty net with eight seconds remaining.

Kamloops held a 40-18 shots advantage.

The Royals move on to Kelowna tonight.

CdnSailor
11-26-2011, 12:48 PM
November 26, 2011

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor

Turnovers? Grandma's kitchen never saw anything like this.

Odd-man breaks? More than there've been from any Mexican jail.

The Kamloops Blazers benefited from all of that and more as they dropped the Victoria Royals 4-1 in a WHL game played at Interior Savings Centre on Friday night.

The Blazers (15-7-1) are 3-1-1 in their last five games. They get right back at it tonight against the Seattle Thunderbirds, who dropped a 3-2 shootout decision to the visiting Prince George Cougars last night. Game time at ISC is 7 o'clock.

The Royals 11-13-1), who meet the Rockets in Kelowna tonight, have lost six of seven.

This one was ugly, pretty much from start to finish, but especially so in the second period.

The Royals stumbled so badly in the middle period that Marc Habscheid, their general manager/head coach, called time out at 6:35. At that point, the Royals were trailing 2-0 and being outshot 23-6. Habscheid informed them of exactly that, although perhaps not in those words.

"The amount of pucks we turn over in the neutral zone is astonishing," Habscheid said. "They get it and it goes back in, and you end up spending too much time in your own end."

And, last night, it could have been worse . . . much worse.

Erratic shooting? Jimmy Breslin's gang that couldn't shoot straight had nothing on the Blazers on this night.

The Royals gave the home boys more pucks and more odd-man rushes than they could have wished for, and the locals oftentimes returned the favour by shooting high, wide or both.

That is why the Blazers led only 3-0 in the third period when the Royals' power-play gave them a breath of life.

"What we need to learn is . . . as dominant as we were," Kamloops head coach Guy Charron said, "I thought we took two bad penalties in the third period. That, to me, is undisciplined."

With the Blazers on the power play, defenceman Bronson Maschmeyer took an interference penalty. Less than a minute after Kamloops killed that one, winger Chase Souto went off for hooking.

Victoria centre Kevin Sundher scored on the power play to get the visitors to within two.

"Now you allow the other team to get back in it," Charron said. "The penalty killing has done a tremendous job and we put our penalty killing in that situation. You can't.

"We have to get better at those things so that we can be the team that we are expected to be."

The Blazers also may have caught a break when referee Mike Campbell waved off what might have been a late Victoria goal. The Royals went to the net hard and the puck crossed the line, but Campbell waved it off and ruled that goaltender Cole Cheveldave had been pushed into the net.

"We hung around," Habscheid said, "and I'm not sure about that disallowed goal. (Cheveldave) was tripped on the play . . . that's a hockey play. And then it's 3-2 and you never know. That gives us more energy."

"You never know," Charron echoed.

The Blazers got a solid effort from Cheveldave, who finished with 17 saves, about six of them coming from a flurry late in the second period when the Royals enjoyed the man advantage.

"He's a competiive ittle bugger," Charron said of the freshman from Calgary. "His work eithic in practice . . . he never gives up on a shot and he gets upset when things don't go well for him."

The Blazers got two goals from Dylan Willick, the second one into an empty net, with Chase Schaber and Colin Smith getting the others.

Kamloops again got good mileage from Smith's line, with Tim Bozon and J.C. Lipon on the wings. They earned a lot of chances, but were guilty of some erratic shooting.

"It just wasn't going in for me," said Lipon, who twice fired high and wide when he was in close. "It's nice to get all the chances, though. They were going in earlier in the year . . . they'll come."

Lipon especially was pleased with the way the Blazers dominated the Royals last night because these teams will meet again.

"We beat them 8-2 before but we knew they would come out hard tonight," he said. "We play these guys four times in the next two weeks. We wanted to send a message right off the bat."

---

The plan was for the Royals to travel to Kamloops on Thursday, via the 1 p.m. ferry from Swartz Bay. However, inclement weather resulted in repeated sailing cancellations, so they returned to the capital and caught the 11 a.m. ferry yesterday.

The Blazers are to play a doubleheader in Victoria next week and plan on leaving Tuesday morning for a game there that night.

JUST NOTES: Attendance was 3,725. . . . The Royals were 1-for-5 on the power play; the Blazers were 0-for-5. . . . Victoria G Keith Hamilton finished with 36 saves. . . . Victoria D Tyler Stahl, 19, sat out his 21st straight game since suffering a concussion on Oct. 1 in Prince George. Cougars F Charles Inglis served a 10-game suspension for the hit to the head that put Stahl on the shelf. . . . The Royals have released F Brendan Persley, 18, who is from Kelowna. Persley, who had one goal in nine games, missed all of training camp and the early part of the season with mononucleosis. . . . The Daily News Three Stars: 1. D Marek Hrbas, Kamloops. Strong and physical; 2. Willick: Two goals, strong defence; 3. Lipon: Lots of jump, lots of chances.