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Royals and Giants meet 10 times this season. 4 have been played with neither winning in their foes barn. Vancouver losing 1 and the Royals losing 3.
Giants and Royals are tied in 2nd place with the Giants having one more Goal For.
Victoria Royals 17 9 7 0 1 = 19 PTS 1-0-0-1 STK 5-4-0-1 P10 327 PIM
Vancouver Giants 17 9 7 0 1 = 19 PTS 1-0-0-0 STK 6-4-0-0 P10 338 PIM 1st Place
From Da Man Jeff K., Zach Habscheid will be playing on Friday.
Victoria, BC - The Victoria Royals and Vancouver Giants meet in the fourth installment of their 10 game season series this Friday, November 4th and Saturday, November 5th. Puck drop for both games is set for 7:05 p.m. at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. To this point, the home team has held the advantage in each meeting between the B.C. Division teams and with four points on the line this weekend, it promises to be another exciting chapter in the rivalry.
The action on the ice is only part of what fans attending the games can expect this weekend, with a Home Depot Thunderstick giveaway on Friday and Winter Driving Awareness Night set for Saturday.
Friday Night
The Victoria Royals 'turn back the clock' to the decade of hair, metal and acid wash with 80's Night this Friday in the first of back-to-back games against the Vancouver Giants.
The first 1500 fans entering the building on Friday will receive a set of Thundersticks courtesy of Home Depot to cheer on the Royals against their B.C. Division rivals.
Anthem Hair Salon will be providing free mullet hair cuts to any participants willing to wear the style that inspired the phrase 'business in the front and party in the back.' Those who do volunteer to have their hair cut into the classic mullet style will be rewarded with an Anytime Ticket Voucher, valid for any of the remaining Royals' home games this season.
Other promotions include a Home Depot 'Leaf Blower Challenge' to win a mini-fridge in between the first and second periods, as well as a Langford Lanes Pin to Win Bowling Challenge during the second intermission.
If all of that isn't enough, fans will also see the return of 'Fly-Away Fridays', where they will have the opportunity to throw their paper airplane entry to win a return flight for two on Harbour Air to Vancouver, one night's accommodation at the Coast Hotel in Vancouver, and two tickets to a Vancouver Canucks game courtesy of BCAA. Proceeds from the contest will benefit the Saanich Minor Hockey Association.
Saturday Night
Royals' fans are invited to Winter Driving Awareness Night on Saturday, generously sponsored by Mainroad, ICBC, BCAA, Fountain Tire, Westcoast Tire, 103.1 Jack FM and the Ocean 98.5. Both stations are a part of Rogers Communications.
The first 800 fans in the building that night will receive ice scrapers courtesy of 103.1 Jack FM and the Ocean 98.5. Fans can also receive free safety tips courtesy of Mainroad.
Fans who bring three (3) non-perishable food items in support of the Mustard Seed Food Bank will be eligible for the chance to compete during the first intermission in the 103.1 Jack FM Tire Roll, with the winner taking away a set of winter tires courtesy of Westcoast Tire and Rogers. The second intermission will feature a Winter Driving Trike Race, with the winner walking away with a $500 gift certificate to Fountain Tire.
BCAA and ICBC will also be at the game providing information and giveaways to ensure drivers are ready for winter weather driving conditions.
There is a couple of similarities heading into this weekend's double dip between the Vancouver Giants and Victoria Royals; one, both teams come in with identical 9-7-0-1 records and two, both teams are coming off a win over the Seattle Thunderbirds. Throw in the fact, these two teams don't like each other that much and you can expect some intense hockey Friday and Saturday night at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
The Giants head to Vancouver Island having won 5 of their last 6 games, including a 4-2 victory over Seattle Tuesday night. Brendan Gallagher continues to lead the way offensively. He is 3rd in the league in goals with 14 and 9th in league scoring with 23 points. The Montreal Canadiens draft pick is coming off a 3 goal, 4 point effort vs. the Thunderbirds. Adam Morrison has proven to be worth every penny since being acquired from Saskatoon early in the season.The 20 year old has won his last 5 starts and is now 8-3-0-1 on the year. Unfortunately, the injury bug has hit the Giants as of late, so as a result, Anthony Ast, Matt Bellerive, Scott Cooke, and Blake Orban will all be unavailable this weekend. Logan Harland, who was called up Monday from the AJHL, will remain with the team for the two games this weekend.
The Royals are led by Kevin Sunder. The Buffalo Sabres draft pick is coming off a 4 goal, 5 point performance Saturday night vs. Seattle. He leads the league in assists with 21 and is 3rd in the league in scoring with 32 points. Like Gallagher, he will take part in the upcoming Subway Super Series as a member of Team WHL. Victoria has dealt with their own injury woes. Defensemen Tyler Stahl and Zach Habscheid have been out for an extended period of time with concussions. Stahl has missed the last 13 games, while Habscheid has been on the shelf for the last 11 games.
So far this season, the Giants have dominated this match up vs. their arch rivals. Vancouver is 3-1-0-0 in 4 games vs. the Royals, including a perfect 3-0 on home ice. The Giants only loss to Victoria this season came at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on September 24, when they fell 5-3. In their 3 victories the Giants outscored the Royals 18-4. The top line of James Henry, Marek Tvrdon, and Brendan Gallagher have combined for 10 goals and 24 points vs. Victoria this year.
Both games can be heard live on AM 650 on Friday November 4 and Saturday November 5 beginning at 6:30 pm with the pregame show. The puck drops at 7:05 pm on both nights.
Royals Report on CHEK TV:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/...=1257287476001
CLEVE DHEENSAW cdheensaw@timescolonist.com
Help on way for Royals’ blue-line
GAME DAY: VANCOUVER VS. VICTORIA
At a certain level, hockey cannot be played at half speed. Zach Habscheid has reached that level in the Western Hockey League. Coming off his fourth career concussion, that’s a fact he lives with every time he steps onto the ice.
Habscheid, set to return to the Victoria Royals lineup for the two-game set tonight and Saturday against the Vancouver Giants at Save-on-foods Memorial Centre, has learned not to hear footsteps. And never to hold back in what is a physical, sometimes violent, game played at high speeds.
“Concussions are a vicious cycle but I try not to let the thought of it affect me,” said the 19-year-old defenceman, who has missed 11 games after he was concussed Oct. 6 in a game at the Memorial Centre.
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Kale Kessy received a five-game suspension from the league for that hit from behind that took out Habscheid.
Meanwhile, fellow 19-year-old Royals blueliner Tyler Stahl remains out indefinitely with a concussion the sixth-round Carolina Hurricanes draft pick suffered in the fourth game of the season after taking an elbow to the head from Prince George Cougars forward Charles Inglis. Inglis received a 10-game suspension.
“Both the player delivering a hit and the player receiving a hit have to be aware [of the concussion issue],” said Habscheid.
After the Kessy hit, Habscheid suffered from recurring headaches every time he “went for a spin” on the ice.
“Now I’m good to go and have no symptoms,” said the stay-at-home rearguard, who was scoreless in the six games he played before the concussion.
The biggest issue for Habscheid, who will be paired with Brett Cote, is working himself back into fitness.
“I’ll be fine but I might need an oxygen tank,” he quipped.
Yet if he returns like Royals forward Brandon Magee has, it will be with the impact of a cyclone. The 17-year-old energy forward has taken Victoria’s top line — which includes Kevin Sundher, tied for second in league scoring, and Robin Soudek — to new production heights.
Magee, who missed six games after incurring a high-ankle sprain Oct. 2 in Kamloops, has made his presence felt since returning Oct. 21. That’s because he knows that hockey dictate about not holding back.
“The ankle is still a bit sore and hinders my explosiveness a bit but it’s coming along,” said Magee, who has two goals and 10 points in 11 games.
“But that hasn’t stopped our line from clicking and I hope that continues. We’ve found a real chemistry. That’s because all three of us are willing to go into the dirty areas of the ice.”
The Royals and Giants head into the weekend set with identical 9-7-1 records.
“We’ve caught a lot of teams by surprise,” said Magee, of a Royals club that has managed to prevail through its early-season injury woes.
Because of proximity, the games against the Giants always took on special meaning last season for then-rookie Magee when the Royals franchise was located in Chilliwack and known as the Bruins. And it’s magnified now, he said.
“It just feels bigger now because you have the two largest cities in the province going at it when these teams meet,” said Magee.
“And when we get 5,000 to 6,000 people in this building [Memorial Centre] cheering for us against a team like that, we really get going.”
The Royals have lost all three of their games in Vancouver this season but defeated the Giants in their lone meeting at the Memorial Centre in the first home game of the season.
Because of the natural rivalry, the Royals play Vancouver more than any other team. Tonight and Saturday are the fifth and sixth of 10 meetings between the clubs this season.
Steve Ewen, The Province
Published: Friday, November 04, 2011
The Vancouver Giants' rivalry with Victoria Royals is growing. You could even have an entertaining father-son challenge during the intermission now.
Jackson Houck, 16, a rookie winger with the Giants, and Zach Habscheid, 19, a third-year rearguard with the Royals, don't know each other well, but their fathers do.
Paul Houck and Marc Habscheid were teammates with the Minnesota North Stars after also having a couple of different stints together in the minors, including one where they doubled as neighbours in the same apartment complex.
"He's just the funniest man I've ever met in my life," the elder Habscheid said, chuckling all the while.
"Look, you bring up his name and I just start laughing.
"It's fun to see his boy out there. You can tell that he has a sense of humour, just with the way he relates with his teammates. He's like his dad; he's a good teammate.
"You think, 'Oh, my goodness gracious,' because time really does move on. We were playing together and now his son is playing against mine."
His son is in fact playing against Habscheid, too, since he's the coach and general manager of the Royals, who moved to Victoria this summer from Chilliwack.
Victoria (9-7-0-1) and Vancouver (9-7-0-1) are tied for second spot in the WHL's B.C. Division, heading into tonight's game at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre (7: 05 p.m., AM 650/91.3 FM). They play the second half of the twinbill there Saturday (7: 05, AM 650/91.3 FM).
As a player, the elder Habscheid was a stylish centre, a guy who put up 151 points in 55 games in his last full season in the WHL with the Saskatoon Blades in 1981-82 and one who lasted 345 games in the NHL. His son is a stay-athome blueliner, and has the size, at 6-foot-4 and 211 pounds, to clear the slot.
The Houcks have their differences in playing styles, too. The dad got into 16 games in the NHL, but proved he had the hands of a scorer at other levels, including in college, where he tallied a team-high 71 points, including 38 goals, in 47 contests in 1982-83 with a Wisconsin squad featuring Chris Chelios and Patrick Flatley.
The son has come across as a grinder so far with the Giants. Already a key part of the forecheck, he's proven he's not afraid to catapult a 6-foot, 185-pound frame into opposing defencemen.
Referees, and the league office for that matter, haven't always been keen with the way he's gone about it. Houck comes into this series with Victoria off a two-game suspension for a boarding major and subsequent game misconduct he received for a hit on Prince George Cougars forward Tayler Thompson on Oct. 28.
It was originally listed as a checking to the head major, but later changed. Houck had checking to the head minors in his two previous games.
"I'm definitely going to keep the edge to my game," said Houck, a third-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft from North Vancouver who has two goals, three points and 21 penalty minutes in 10 games this season. "I'm just going to try to play as physical as I can when I'm looking at them and not at their numbers.
"I'm going to play as clean as possible."
Vancouver's forecheck will be a major concern to the Royals, who despite having the same record as the Giants, have given up 21 more goals. They've been swamped by injuries to their defencemen.
In fact, Swift Current native Habscheid (upper body) is playing his first games this weekend since Oct. 6, a span of 11 games. Tyler Stahl (upper body) hasn't played in 13 games and the Royals aren't saying when he might be back.
Keep them points coming...not the most exciting of matches, but it was a tense finish. Clear early that Hamilton was on his game and we needed every bit of his expertise, plus a little luck. I think we'll have to be better tomorrow. Also sense that the undercurrent of nastiness might boil over Saturday depending on who has the upper hand (and by how much). Nice crowd of 6,000+, I expect at least the same for Game #2.
Wow -- I wish I was at that game even with the loss, it sounded pretty intense. We'll just have to come back and win tomorrow night. Not sure what it is about Hamilton at home, but he sounded brilliant tonight.
Royals' defence delivers a victory
BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM NOVEMBER 4, 2011 10:34 PM
The Victoria Royals took Friday’s 1980s theme night to heart and did a pretty decent job of emulating some Victoria Cougars WHL stars from that era.
Especially goaltender Keith Hamilton, who made like Grant Fuhr with a 33-save performance to backstop the Royals to a 2-1 Western Hockey League victory over the Vancouver Giants before 6,061 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Forward Kevin Sundher, who could be the Royals’ version of early 1980s Cougar-vintage Barry Pederson, led the offence with two assists as Victoria moved to 10-7-1 overall and 6-1-1 at home.
“We play well here,” said Sundher. “The energy is unbelievable and we feed off it. It’s fun to win games like that.”
That would be old-school, low-scoring games.
“The guys played well and blocked a lot of shots for me,” said Hamilton, named first star of the night while Sundher was selected second star.
“I could see the puck.”
But there were plenty of close calls.
“It was one of those nights where the bounces were going your way,” added Hamilton. “It’s good to have one of those nights.”
Royals forward Robin Soudek, ever-opportunistic like former Cougar Geoff Courtnall, made it 1-0 with his 12th goal of the season at 16:51 of the first period. The goal was set up by a crafty back-handed assist from Sundher.
The Giants scored a breakaway goal by Cain Franson at 2:35 of the second period. But the Royals regained the lead just 20 seconds later through Brendan Persley’s first goal of the season, which held up to be the winner.
“We owed these guys [Giants],” said Sundher.
“They took it to us a few times this season in Vancouver.”
Indeed, the Royals are 2-0 at home against the Giants but 0-3 in Vancouver.
The Vancouver defence, anchored by Nanaimo-native Neil Manning and six-foot-three Edmonton Oilers second-round draft pick David Musil, did a good job of keeping the Victoria offence at bay although the Royals mustered just enough to win.
“We grunted it out,” said Sundher.
The Royals forced Vancouver goaltender Adam Morrison into 22 saves and would like to see the opposition goaltender busier than that.
“There wasn’t too much room to move,” added Sundher.
“I’ll have to see the video to see how we can combat that and find some holes [in the Giants defence].”
The Victoria defenders, backed by Hamilton’s staunch netminding, countered well and were effective in containing the Giants’ Brendan Gallagher, the diminutive but shifty fifth-rounder who made quite the impact at Montreal Canadiens training camp this fall.
“You have to be aware when he’s on the ice,” said Hamilton.
“He goes to the net hard every time and you have to be ready for him.”
Which the Royals will need to be again tonight at the Memorial Centre as they close out the two-game set against their B.C. Division rival Vancouver (9-8-1).