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pontcanna
12-30-2011, 01:15 AM
Royals coach wants better work ethic

BY MARIO ANNICCHIARICO, TIMESCOLONIST.COM DECEMBER 29, 2011 11:09 PM

Marc Habscheid’s message from Day 1 of Victoria Royals training camp is the same statement he’ll stress to his team in its last game of 2011 when they face the Portland Winterhawks in the second of their Western Hockey League two-game road trip.

“We need to work,” said Habscheid, general manager and head coach of the Royals, who fell to 13-21-2-2 after Wednesday’s 6-3 loss to the Winterhawks. “They have a pretty good team, an older team, there is no doubt about that. But there are a lot of things you can overcome with hard work and a higher compete level.”

Victoria will face the Winterhawks, the highest scoring and shooting team in the league, again tonight at 7 at the Rose Garden in Portland looking to improve.

“When a team like that works harder and competes harder than you, it compounds it,” said Habscheid. “We have to work harder. That was the message from Day 1. This team will have to work and we don’t work hard enough consistently.”

That will be stressed even more now that the Royals have fallen into the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, a point behind Seattle, which has five games in hand. The Royals also sit just two points ahead of Prince George with the Cougars having played two fewer games.

“We have to win some games,” said Habscheid. “That sounds simple enough, but we have to work hard and compete and wins will come. Right now it seems like we’re easy to play against, and that’s not a good thing.”

They’ll also have to stay out of the penalty box against the Winterhawks, who feature the No. 1 power-play unit in the league. On Wednesday the hosts were 2-for-3 with the man advantage. The Royals went 1-for-6, but were

0-for-3 in the first period when a statement could have been made.

Instead, Victoria was out-shot 20-10 in the opening 20 minutes and 54-32 overall, not that Habscheid was concerned with those numbers as his goaltender Keith Hamilton, a former Winterhawk, was peppered.

“These guys [Portland] and Spokane are notorious with that, so we’ll take that with a grain of salt. If any team outshoots these guys in their own barn that would be a miracle,” he said of what he called exaggerated shot totals in both barns. “They outplayed us, but their shot counters; I’ll leave that as is.”

Habscheid would not confirm who would play goal tonight, Hamilton or 17-year-old Jared Rathjen.