Vancouver at Victoria 3/4 Mar
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...uverGiants.gif at http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...oriaRoyals.gif
Victoria and Vancouver have met each other 7 times this season with the Giants taking 5 of them.
Vancouver is 5 - 5 past 10 while Victoria is 3 - 7 past 10.
7th and 8th spot is anybodys at this time and may go down to the wire.
Royals get crucial win over Giants
Canada's most famous football trophy was in the building — courtesy of former Salmon Kings and now B.C. Lions ticketing rep Jeff Hill — but colour this night far from Grey at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The Victoria Royals scored a 5-2 Western Hockey League victory over the Vancouver Giants that was as spirited as it was crucial. Maybe that stiff wind felt across the capital region Saturday was the sigh of relief emanating from the Royals dressing room as the race for the final two of eight playoff berths in the Western Conference careens toward a conclusion.
With eighth-place Everett defeating Tri City 4-1, seventh-place Victoria remained one point ahead with seven games remaining. The win allowed the Royals to put four points between themselves and the ninth-place Seattle Thunderbirds, 7-3 losers Saturday to the Portland Winterhawks but retaining a game in hand on Victoria
The Royals remained six points ahead of the 10th-place Prince George Cougars, 4-3 comeback victors over the Spokane Chiefs in overtime to keep their fading embers glowing.
First-period goals by Victoria defenceman Jordan Fransoo and Jamie Crooks, the latter on the power play with his team-leading 34th goal of the season, got the Royals off to a fast start before a raucous crowd of 6,727 on Armed Forces Appreciation Night.
"Before the game, we discussed getting a good start because we know Vancouver has good starts," said Fransoo, a seventh-round draft pick of the Ottawa Senators.
"After that, we grinded it out. It was a hard-fought game. It was a good effort, and we have to replicate that [today, when the Royals and Giants conclude their two-game set with a 1 p.m. matinée at the Memorial Centre]."
Nathan Burns's 11th goal of the season brought the G-Men to within one at 4:32 of the second period. The two-goal Victoria margin was restored on the power play by Zane Jones on what turned out to be the winner.
Montreal Canadiens-prospect Brendan Gallagher showed why he is the Giants' all-time franchise points leader — and one of the steals of the 2010 NHL draft as a fifth-rounder — with a one-timer at the step of the crease for his 39th goal of the season at 17:28 of the second.
Then the Royals' Mission from Minnesota swung into action to restore the two-goal lead as Ben Walker from Edina converted a pass from Logan Nelson of Rogers — his second assist of the night — to make it 4-2 at 17:57 of the second. Captain Hayden Rintoul's empty-netter sealed the deal at 18:55 of the third period.
Victoria goaltender Jared Rathjen was there when needed in a 29-stop performance. Adam Morrison made 22 saves for Vancouver.
Royals GM and head coach Marc Habscheid was happy to see his power play at 2-6 after going a combined 0-10 in the previous two losses to Spokane.
"We needed that because we struggled the last few games on the power play," said Habscheid.
But there was no power outage on this night for the Royals.
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/Royals+...#ixzz1o81dfAWU
Warm up the bus (for the home team)
I'm wondering if it will be "Bag-Skate with the Kids" for the Royals right now?
Oh dear, another one of those "the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train" weekends. That 00:15 goal certainly indicated we weren't ready to play and were lucky to get out of the first only 1-0 down. Least said the better about the second...it got to be entertaining wondering when we'd get that second shot on the Giant net. I think it was after minute 15.
Don't think they'll have sold many playoff ticket packages this afternoon. The radio folk were again working hard to find a positive spin in the after-game show...Soudek got grinder of the game, at least he did have a pulse this afternoon.