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CdnSailor
02-26-2012, 11:54 PM
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/SpokaneChiefs.gif at http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/VictoriaRoyals.gif

After taking two games in a row against Prince George and bumping up to 7th spot, the Royals are getting close to a playoff position.
With 10 games remaining in the season, the Royals need at least 6 wins to be in the playoffs.
Victoria has played Spokane twice this season losing both.
Spokane has lost 2 in a row and is 3 and 7 past 10

pontcanna
02-27-2012, 12:15 AM
So my wife (the Rod Stewart fan) will undoubtedly have me down by the boards during warm-up Tuesday to snap a couple of photos of his son, Liam Stewart (#11 playing centre on the Chiefs) who's having a respectable rookie season (12+10 in 56 games). Also will be playing (wow) for the Great Britain national junior team in Division II of the under 18's in Holland (depending on WHL play-offs). I imagine his background (son of rock star and supermodel) gives other teams a lot of wind-up material in the face-off circle :)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2044751/Rod-Stewarts-son-Liam-Stewart-selected-Great-Britains-ice-hockey-team.html

CdnSailor
02-27-2012, 12:19 PM
Never new about the Stewart relation. Thanks for that little tidbit. :D

CdnSailor
02-29-2012, 12:05 AM
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/SpokaneChiefs.gif 4 http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/VictoriaRoyals.gif 2

What a disheartening game again. 0/6 on the power play.
To many defensive mistakes again as usual.
Sure will be nice to hopefully have some new players next season.
Not sure what our goalie was thinking either. Trying to be a hotshot and making really dumb, stupid plays with the puck. Score should have been 6-2 by his retardness but was damn lucky that Spokane could not do anything with his mistakes.
Tomorrow is another day :o

pontcanna
02-29-2012, 12:53 AM
I think you're about the only person in the rink going on about Rathjen's "retardedness" tonight. Not perfect, but a damn sight better than the 'tending we've had all season and a quantum leap to what we've seen from him in a limited role.

pontcanna
02-29-2012, 12:54 AM
Chiefs rally late, foil Royals

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM FEBRUARY 28, 2012 10:32 PM

The Spokane Chiefs’ Montreal Canadiens-inspired jerseys, among the most distinctive in the Western Hockey League, were just as vividly red Tuesday night as they were the last time the Chiefs were on Blanshard Street in 1993-94.

The result this time — a 4-2 win by the Chiefs over the Victoria Royals — was not that much different than in the days when Spokane used to regularly hammer on the Victoria Cougars at the old Memorial Arena.

Blake Gal’s late goal at 16:40 of the third period broke a 2-2 tie and won it as the Chiefs (33-22-7) snapped a two-game losing streak, while the Royals (20-37-6) had their two-game winning streak broken. Corbin Baldwin’s empty-netter put it away at 18:54 of the third before 4,823 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

There is a more recent history involved as well. The Chiefs won the best-of-seven opening-round playoff series 4-1 last year when the Royals were known as the Chilliwack Bruins. You can tell there is a bit of lingering ill feeling left over among the veterans of both clubs. These guys don’t seem to like each other much.

“It was a hard-fought playoff series last year and both these teams are emotionally engaged,” said Royals GM and head coach Marc Habscheid.

But it is this year’s playoffs that Victoria fans and Habscheid are more concerned about now. And uncertainty continues to swirl around that scenario. That was a costly late goal for Victoria to give up.

The consolation for the Royals, among four teams vying for the final two of eight playoff berths in the Western Conference, got help in other games Tuesday as the Medicine Hat Tigers defeated the Prince George Cougars 3-2 and the Tri-City Americans beat the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-1.

The night’s results leave seventh-place Victoria two points ahead of eighth-place Seattle, three points ahead of the ninth-place Everett Silvertips and six points in front of 10th-place Prince George. The Royals have nine games remaining. The Thunderbirds, Cougars and Silvertips all hold a game in hand on Victoria.

“We didn’t make a good decision on that winning goal and it cost us,” said Habscheid, of Gal’s killer counter. “They [Chiefs] are a hard-working team and we raised our game, too.”

Dakota Conroy of Victoria and Mitch Holmberg traded first-period goals. Collin Valcourt pulled the Chiefs ahead by one at 1:30 of the third period. Jamie Crooks, with his Royals team-leading 33rd goal, tied it 2-2 at 7:26 of the third off an assist from Brandon Magee.

“Lots of guys are back [from last year’s playoff series] and know each other well,” said Magee.

“This is already a playoff atmosphere for us. Points down the stretch are key. I thought we played well the whole night. If not for a couple of bad bounces, the game could have gone the other way. Sticking to our game plan is the key [for tonight when the Chiefs and Royals conclude their two-game set at 7 p.m.]”

Goaltenders Jared Rathjen of the Royals and Mac Engel of the Chiefs were both solid with 29 and 26 saves, respectively.

CdnSailor
02-29-2012, 11:39 PM
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/SpokaneChiefs.gif 6 http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/cdnsailor/VictoriaRoyals.gif 1


Glad I stayed home this evening with the wife. Talking about getting spanked :groovy: 6 - 1 with 2 shorthand goals.
The only condolance to all this, and I am sorry for their fans as well is that Prince George and Everett suck as bad as we do :o

pontcanna
03-01-2012, 12:03 AM
Yep, they got to play "Maggie May" twice after his shorthanded goals and then "Forever Young" as Liam Stewart collected his #1 star goodie bag.

A real stinker. Rathjen was hung out to dry by an appalling defence. No urgency at all. The turtle derby continues.

pontcanna
03-01-2012, 01:07 AM
Royals suffer power outage

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM FEBRUARY 29, 2012 10:25 PM

The Stewart clan is forging quite the connection to Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

Spokane Chiefs forward Liam Stewart, whose dad and old-school rocker Rod Stewart opened the Memorial Centre in 2005 as the first act ever to play the building, scored two short-handed goals Wednesday night in the Chiefs’ 6-1 victory over the Victoria Royals.

Stewart’s goals at 15:15 of the second period and 9:46 of the third were the blows from which Victoria simply couldn’t recover in the Western Hockey League game played before 4,883 fans. Stewart’s first goal made it 2-0 and proved the winner.

The Memorial Centre PA music man, Tom Grainger, was pitch perfect in the moment and played Maggie May after Stewart’s goals, never mind that it was recorded more than two decades before any of these players were born. When it was time for Stewart to collect his game first-star award, it was his dad’s version of Forever Young that played on the PA in a nice touch.

Rod Stewart, a Glasgow Celtic, Man United and Scottish national team fan, is far more interested in soccer and kicked several balls into the crowd from the stage that opening night of the Memorial Centre. On this night, the Royals were probably wishing his son had chosen soccer instead of hockey.

About the only thing keeping the Royals in the playoff hunt is that the other teams vying for the final two of eight berths in the Western Conference also keep losing. The pattern continued Wednesday in the race to the bottom with the Kamloops Blazers defeating the Everett Silvertips 3-2 and the Medicine Hat Tigers beating the Prince George Cougars 4-1.

The night’s results left seventh-place Victoria two points ahead of the eighth-place Seattle Thunderbirds, three points ahead of ninth-place Everett and six points in front of 10th-place Prince George. The Royals have eight games remaining. The Thunderbirds hold two games in hand on Victoria and the Cougars and Silvertips one game each on Victoria.

“That was a huge game for us as we are looking to get a cushion on Everett, Seattle and Prince George,” said Royals forward Steven Hodges. “But it was not our best effort tonight. You can’t put it on one or two people because it was everybody.”

Hodges, the 55th-ranked North American skater for the 2012 NHL draft, scored his 20th goal of the season in the third period to break Mac Engel’s shutout bid. But it came with Spokane leading 5-0 and was pretty much meaningless in terms of the outcome.

“That was a clunker,” said Royals GM and head coach Marc Habscheid, in describing Wednesday’s loss, which gave Spokane a sweep of the two-game set at the Memorial Centre.

“It seemed the ice was tipped one way. We were a step behind.”

Spokane’s high pressure on the forecheck and penalty kill kept Victoria off kilter all night as the Chiefs moved to 34-22-7 while the Royals fell to 20-38-6.

Victoria goaltender Jared Rathjen faced 36 shots and could only stem the tide for so long. The Royals managed 25 shots on Engel.

After going 0-6 on the power play in Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Chiefs, the Royals were 0-4 on Wednesday. Yet it’s one thing not to score on the power play but quite another to allow the opposition to score twice on your odd man.

Enter Stewart, the man of the match, as they say in his father’s favourite sport.

fatshad
03-01-2012, 10:49 AM
Yep, they got to play "Maggie May" twice after his shorthanded goals and then "Forever Young" as Liam Stewart collected his #1 star goodie bag.

A real stinker. Rathjen was hung out to dry by an appalling defence. No urgency at all. The turtle derby continues.

Can anybody tell me why we have played all year with only two 20's when you can have three !! The 20 year olds are key players on major junior rosters !! I for the life of me can not figure this one out !! Something is not right the players look to be losing interest and I mean most of them !! I am wishing Conacher would have taken over as our head coach and Habscheid would look after the GM duties only !! But two late for that. The whole ship is sinking for whatever reasons !! Thoughts ?
Go Royals Go you are amazingly still in the thick of it :confused::o:confused:

CdnSailor
03-01-2012, 01:27 PM
Saturday is Military Night. There has not been a whole lot of PR on it to say the least from what I have heard or seen.
Maybe the ship will float with all the sailors who will be at the game :clap: