Victoria at Medicine Hat 17 Dec 11

[CdnSailor]

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/VictoriaRoyals.gif at http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/MedicineHatTigers.gif

Victoria is on their last game of the 2011 season playing Medicine Hat.
The royals have only been able to collect 2 points so far on this three game Alberta road trip.

Victoria plays Medicine hat three times this season with this game today being the tie breaker. Tigers took the first game 4-2 and lost the second 5-4, both games played in Victoria back in early October.

The Tigers are currently 5 and 5 past 10 and is in 3rd place in the Central Division.
Victoria is on a three game losing streak taking 2 pts from the three.

Medicine Hat Tigers 35 19 12 2 2 = 42 PTS 1-0-0-0 STK 5-4-1-0 P10 602 PIM

Victoria Royals 36 13 19 2 2 = 30 PTS 0-1-1-1 STK 2-5-2-1 P10 639 PIM

[pontcanna]

Royals ready for a break

BY RON RAUCH, TIMES COLONIST DECEMBER 17, 2011 10:05 PM

This time there was no third-period comeback for the Victoria Royals. After salvaging at least a point in their last four Western Hockey League games with final frame rallies, the Royals couldn’t score in the third period Saturday and dropped a 4-2 decision to the Medicine Hat Tigers.

The Royals were unable to take advantage even with explosive forward Emerson Etem being out of the Medicine Hat lineup as he was in Camrose attending the U.S. world junior pre-tournament camp. Etem, from Long Beach, California, leads the team in scoring with 30 goals and 31 assists.

Hunter Shinkaruk picked up the slack for the hometown Tigers before 4,006 fans at the Medicine Hat Arena with two goals. Shinkaruk notched his 29th and 30th goals of the season to lead the attack while the other were added by Curtis Valk, on a first period power play and Scott McKay, who tallied at 19:42 of the first period.

Defencemen Jesse Pauls and Hayden Rintoul countered for Victoria. Pauls scored his third goal of the season after notching two on Friday during Victoria’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

“We played OK in the first half of the game but then we ran out of gas,’’ said Victoria GM and head coach Marc Habscheid. “We are physically and mentally tired and our Christmas break is coming at a good time. We can get away from the game for awhile and that will give the bumps and bruises some time to heal.

“Tonight, our team just didn’t have the push to respond when Medicine Hat took the lead. The Tigers didn’t play last night and they had an extra step on us tonight.’’

Rookie 17-year-old goaltender Jared Rathjen made his third career start and he made 25 saves as the Royals trailed 2-1 and 4-2 at the period breaks.

The Royals, with a 13-20-4 record, had trouble generating much offence against the Tigers and goaltender Tyler Bunz, who is back with Medicine Hat (20-12-4) after being cut from the Canadian junior team earlier in the week. Bunz stopped 16 of 18 shots.

The Royals will now start their Christmas break before returning to action Dec. 28 and Dec. 30 on the road against the Portland Winterhawks. The next home contest at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre is Jan. 3 against the Calgary Hitmen.