PDA

View Full Version : Victoria @ Spokane Feb 3 & Tri-Cities Feb 4



pontcanna
02-03-2012, 12:48 AM
Royals ready for tough tasks ahead

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM FEBRUARY 2, 2012 10:34 PM


The Victoria Royals are not underestimating the magnitude of the task that awaits them tonight and Saturday during a Western Hockey League swing through eastern Washington state.

After all, how could they?

The Royals are only 17-30-5 and among the bottom four teams in the Western Conference scrambling for the final-two playoff berths with only six points separating the lowly quartet.

This weekend’s opponents belong to another world.

Tonight’s foe, the Spokane Chiefs, are 28-15-7 and firmly entrenched in a playoff position by 24 points.

On Saturday, it gets even tougher. The Tri-City Americans are 35-12-2, ranked No. 5 in the BMO MasterCard CHL top 10 poll of all major junior teams in North America, and a whopping 37 points clear of a playoff berth.

“It [weekend road swing] is going to be tough, no doubt,” said Victoria GM and head coach Marc Habscheid.

“We’ve got to find a way. We are going there to win, not participate. We played well recently against Kamloops [36-11-4 and ranked No. 2 in the CHL top 10], which is a club right up there with these teams.”

At least Habscheid has the Minnesota Meteor, forward Ben Walker, in his corner. The rookie from Edina in suburban Minneapolis was named by the Royals on Thursday as their player of the month for January with eight points in 11 games.

Walker’s start in February wasn’t bad, either, as he scored twice and assisted on another goal in Wednesday’s 5-1 victory over the Prince George Cougars at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. And on a team with the worst defensive record in the league, where a plus-rating is a rare commodity, Walker leads the club at plus-3. In fact, he’s the only player on the Royals with a plus rating.

Habscheid said Walker is getting more comfortable with the major-junior brand in his 26 games (six goals, 20 points) since leaving Minnesota high school hockey earlier this season to join the Royals.

Although employing his blinding speed to great advantage, Walker has also shown a willingness to stand his ground in front of the net and knock home some greasy goals.

“I’m just trying to get to where the better spots are to score,” said the 18-year-old, who despite his short tenure with the Royals, is likely to have garnered some notice from pro scouts.

Yet, Walker is under no illusions this weekend as he crosses the border back into his home country. He knows the challenge the Chiefs and Americans present.

“We’re going to have to bring our ‘A’ game,” he said.

Another Royals forward showing signs of stirring is Steven Hodges, the fleet five-foot-11 centre, who has been strangely quiet much of this season despite being rated No. 55 among North American skaters in Central Scouting’s mid-season rankings for the 2012 NHL draft.

“Every game is a crunch game for us now,” said the Delta native, who has 15 goals and 33 points but a minus-19 rating in 52 games.

“We have to play each game like it’s a playoff game.”

Did somebody mention playoffs?

For the Royals, they may have already effectively begun.

CdnSailor
02-03-2012, 06:09 PM
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/VictoriaRoyals.gif At http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/SpokaneChiefs.gif 03 Feb and http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/Tri-CityAmericans.gif 04 Feb

As the paper said Victoria is coming in to some tough games. Not saying that most games this season have been easy, but the Royals have been continuing to flounder.
Spokane currently in 4th has played Victoria once this season winning 6-1 with 3 more games against each other, one tonight and the last two at the end of Feb in Victoria.

Tri-City is different. For some reason they have lost al three games against the Royals. 5-4, 6-2, 5-3. For a top notch team in 2nd spot, the Royals have been able to take the honours. Tomorrow night is there last meeting of the regular season.

Tri-City Americans 49 35 12 1 1 72 PTS 0-1-1-0 STK 3-5-1-1 P10 798PIM

Spokane Chiefs 50 28 15 4 3 63 PTS 0-1-0-0 STK 7-2-1-0 P10 826PIM

Victoria Royals 52 17 30 2 3 39 PTS 1-0-0-0 STK 4-6-0-0 P1 865PIM

CdnSailor
02-04-2012, 01:12 AM
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/SpokaneChiefs.gif 6 http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/VictoriaRoyals.gif 5 (Shootout)

Victoria comes from behind but falls 6-5 in shootout to Spokane.

For Immediate Release

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Spokane, WA – The Victoria Royals kicked off a two game road trip Friday evening when they travelled to Spokane to take on the Chiefs at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. The Royals started Jared Rathjen in net while the Chiefs countered with Eric Williams.

Victoria’s Steven Hodges would open the game’s scoring at the four minute mark of the first period. Logan Nelson skated into the Chiefs’ zone and fired a shot on net that rebounded to an off-balance Hodges who beat Williams high to the blocker side. Spokane responded with a shorthanded marker at 11:23. Chiefs’ forward Dominik Uher intercepted a pass and beat a Victoria defender before he snapped a shot that beat Rathjen over the left shoulder to tie the game 1-1. Jamie Crooks restored the Royals’ lead a mere 38 seconds later while on the powerplay. Crooks jumped on a Spokane turnover and beat Williams on the stick side from the bottom of the right circle for his team-leading 28th goal of the year. The Chiefs evened the score once again at 14:42 after Uher gained the Victoria zone and fed Mitch Holmberg at the left circle who one timed his shot past the Royals’ netminder. The score remained 2-2 after 20 minutes of play.

Spokane went up 3-2 at 4:21 of the middle frame. Off of an offensive zone faceoff, Chiefs’ forward Mike Aviani won the puck back to Cole Wedman who let go a slap shot from the right point that beat a screened Rathjen. Spokane increased their lead to 4-2 less than three minutes later when Liam Stewart picked up the puck off of a turnover and wristed a shot from the left circle that beat Rathjen to the glove side. Marek Kalus added a fifth goal at 9:01 before Victoria replaced Rathjen with Keith Hamilton. The Royals added a second powerplay tally at 16:09 as a Hayden Rintoul point shot rebounded right to Hodges at the left circle. The Victoria forward made no mistake depositing his second goal of the night. After two periods of play Spokane would lead 5-3.

Spokane was awarded a penalty shot just before the half-way point of the third period after Royals’ forward Robin Soudek was called for hooking on Steven Kuhn. Kuhn deked to his forehand but was stopped by the left pad of Hamilton to keep the score 5-3. Brandon Magee got Victoria to within a goal at the 16:46 mark when he accepted a pass from Ben Walker and snapped a shot from the slot that beat Williams over the right pad. The Royals pulled Hamilton with less than two minutes left for the six on four man advantage. Victoria tied the game with 35 seconds left in the game. From a face off to the right of Williams, Walker pushed the puck forward for Soudek who collected it in the front of the net and spun around to beat the left pad of the Spokane netminder to force overtime.

Overtime would solve nothing as a shootout would be needed to decide the extra point. Kuhn would shoot first for Spokane and deke to his forehand to beat Hamilton high to the glove side. Soudek shot first for Victoria but was denied by Williams. Dylan Walchuk would miss the Chiefs’ next shot before Walker beat Williams between the legs to tie the shootout at 1-1. Holmberg scored on the Chiefs’ final attempt. Nelson would shoot third for Victoria but was unable to beat the left pad of Williams. Chiefs 6 Royals 5 in a shootout.

Victoria went 2/7 = 28.6% on the power play, while Spokane was 0/2 = 0.00%. The Chiefs outshot the Royals 26-23.

CdnSailor
02-04-2012, 01:18 AM
From crooners to sweet passers, Spokane has a claim to fame as being the hometown of Bing Crosby and John Stockton.

And it is also home to a decent Western Hockey League team.

So the Victoria Royals (17-30-6) did well in losing 6-5 to the Chiefs (29-15-7) in a shootout Friday night before 7,709 fans at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.

The Royals rode three power-play goals to gain the single point, including Robin Soudek’s tying goal with 35 seconds remaining in regulation time.

Victoria fought back from a 5-2 deficit with three unanswered goals, starting with Steven Hodges’ power-play counter at 16:09 of the second period.

“I thought we deserved both points,” said Royals GM and head coach Marc Habscheid.

“It was a good effort against a good team in a tough building.”

Hodges, rated No. 55 among North American skaters in Central Scouting’s mid-season rankings for the 2012 NHL draft, scored twice for Victoria.

Jamie Crooks, with his team-leading 28th goal of the season, and Brandon Magee also scored for the Royals. Soudek led Victoria with three points.

Minnesotans Ben Walker and Logan Nelson, the latter tied for the lead in WHL rookie scoring, chipped in two assists each for Victoria, but both missed in the shootout.

The Chiefs have three players who were taken in last summer’s NHL draft — forward Dominik Uher, in the fifth round by the Pittsburgh Penguins, forward Darren Kramer, in the sixth round by the Ottawa Senators, and defenceman Brenden Kichton, in the fifth round by the New York Islanders.

Uher led Spokane on Friday with a goal and two assists, while Liam Stewart, Marek Kalus, Mitch Holmberg and Cole Wedman scored the other goals. Holmberg got the shootout decider.

Royals goalie Jared Rathjen, making a rare start, was pulled at 9:01 of the second period after allowing five goals on just 17 shots. Keith Hamilton, the regular starter, came in and faced eight shots, including a penalty shot in the third period.

Eric Williams took the win by making only 18 saves in goal for Spokane as Victoria made its shots count, at least in regulation time.

It was the second of four meetings on the season between the clubs. The first was a 6-1 Chiefs victory in Spokane on Oct. 26. The season series will close out Feb. 28-29 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

Don Nachbaur — who took over the Spokane team last season to replace current Idaho Steelheads ECHL head coach Hardy Sauter — has the Chiefs playing well. These clubs have a history, although it’s not really meaningful to Victoria fans. The Chiefs defeated the Chilliwack Bruins — who moved this season to the B.C. capital to become the Royals — 4-1 in the first round of the playoffs last season.

The Royals head further south into eastern Washington state tonight to take on the Tri-City Americans (36-12-2), ranked No. 5 in the BMO MasterCard CHL top 10 poll of all major junior teams in North America.

The Royals return to Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre for a two-game set Tuesday and Wednesday against the Everett Silvertips, who on Thursday fired GM Doug Soetaert.



Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/Point+taken+Royals+rally+third/6100636/story.html#ixzz1lOZDX8kD

CdnSailor
02-04-2012, 09:19 AM
Only got to see the last period last night, but what a great ending. After seeing on my Iphone that we were down 5-2, I honestly thought we were done in.
Great third period ending, scoring two goals in the last four minutes to tie it up.

SCORING 1 2 3 OT SO Total
Victoria Royals 2 1 2 0 0 5
Spokane Chiefs 2 3 0 0 1 6

SHOTS 1 2 3 OT SO Total
Victoria Royals 12 9 8 0 0 29
Spokane Chiefs 12 6 3 5 1 27

Victoria Shootout
25 Robin Soudek No Goal
10 Ben Walker Goal
19 Logan Nelson No Goal
Total: 1

Spokane Shootout
10 Blake Gal Goal
21 Dylan Walchuk No Goal
17 Mitch Holmberg Goal
Total: 2

Three Stars
1. VIC - 11 Steven Hodges
2. SPO - 11 Liam Stewart
3. SPO - 17 Mitch Holmberg

the Royal Flush
02-04-2012, 11:43 AM
i wonder if we are going to get a shutout this season from our netminders...just one game out of 72 with flawless play...seems unlikely with the two we have...

fatshad
02-04-2012, 02:09 PM
i wonder if we are going to get a shutout this season from our netminders...just one game out of 72 with flawless play...seems unlikely with the two we have...

I cant see it happening !! The Royals have a Junior A backup and a Jr B starter for goaltenders . Easily the most glaring weakness on this team !! must be addressed big time next year and I am sure it will be !! :confused: The defense is gaining some valuable experience and improving and I like our forward group for next year. :):):)

the Royal Flush
02-04-2012, 09:29 PM
I would like to be positive but I think we are gonna get hammered tonight.