Rockets thump penalty-plagued Royals
The Victoria Royals learned a lesson the hard way on Saturday night as the hometown Kelowna Rockets made them pay for recurring penalty problems, eventually scoring four power-play goals in a 7-2 Western Hockey League preseason victory at Prospera Place.
Madison Bowey, Colton Scissons and Tyson Baillie scored man-advantage markers in a span of 3:32 during the opening period as the Royals went through a revolving door to the penalty box.
Shane McColgan had opened the scoring for Kelowna at 7:07 of the first as the Rockets blasted off to a 4-0 first-period lead, outshooting the visitors by a staggering 21-3 margin, which included eight power-play chances.
“That’s going to end,” insisted Royals’ general manager and head coach Marc Habscheid. “I think in the first period the game got away from us. It came down to one thing, work ethic, they had it and we didn’t. They got up four and that was the story.
“But it’s an evaluation and the great thing is it is a game of evaluation.
“From my standpoint this is going to be a disciplined team this year and a team that works way harder than the opposition and we didn’t accomplish either tonight.
It’s a work in progress, it doesn’t happen overnight.”
The previous night the Royals gave up three goals on 11 power-play opportunities in a 4-2 loss in Kamloops.
The only real good news was Victoria didn’t take a single penalty in the third period on Saturday, but the game was lost by then.
Brett Cote got one back for the Royals on their own power play just 1:03 into the second before Kelowna’s MacKenzie Johnston and Victoria’s Brandon Magee traded power-play goals later in the period.
Zach Franko and Colton Heffley closed out the scoring in the third for the Rockets, who were outshot 16-9 in the second, but won the shots-on-goal contest by a hefty 41-23 advantage.
Keith Hamilton surrendered five goals in the Victoria net before giving way to Jared Rathjen late in the second period.
By game’s end there were a total of 108 minutes in penalties called, 58 of which went to the Royals, who allowed four power-play goals on 11 chances, while scoring two on seven opportunities.
Victoria’s Kevin Sundher and Scissons were ejected from the game for fighting late in the first period, and in the second Royals’ captain Curt Gogol and Kelowna’s Mitchell Chapman were tossed after another scrap just seven seconds into the period.
Victoria next faces Vancouver on Friday night at 7:30 in Ladner before the Royals and Giants meet again the next day in Maple Ridge.
ICE CHIPS: Earlier in the day the Rockets acquired 17-year-old Carter Rigby and a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft from the Prince George Cougars in exchange for a third-round selection. Rigby was in the Victoria Grizzlies Junior A camp.
“This was an opportunity for us to acquire a real good young player,” said Kelowna GM Bruce Hamilton.
“We’re looking forward to him getting here and we hope he can work his way into our lineup.”
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