Kelowna at Victoria Oct 14/15

[CdnSailor]

at

Royals are home after playing 4 games in 5 nights, loosing 3 of the 4
Royals are currently in 3rd place
9 4 5 0 0 = 8 Pts 0-2-0-0 STK 4-5-0-0 p10 198 PIM

Rockets are currently in 5th place loosing their last three games.
Rockets are playing the Tigers in their own barn prior to heading to the Rock.
5 4 2 0 0 = 6 Pts 0-3-0-0 STK 3-3-0-0 P10 111 PIM

[CdnSailor]

After a Thanksgiving weekend that saw the Victoria Royals take one of four games played, they return to a place where they’ve had the upper hand early this season; home ice.

The Royals entertain the Kelowna Rockets for back-to-back games at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre this coming weekend and take a 2-and-1 home record into Friday’s opener. The Royals faced the Medicine Hat Tigers last Thursday and Friday in Victoria where they split the two game series. The Royals earned the split with a thrilling 5-4 victory on October 7, capped off with defenceman Hayden Rintoul’s winner with just 24 seconds to play.

The Royals come into Tuesday night WHL action with a 4-5-0-0 record and sit third in the murky waters of the BC division. No team has set itself apart just yet in the division, including the Rockets, who started the season with three straight wins, but have dropped their last two and they face the Tigers Wednesday in Kelowna. The Royals are not playing three games in three nights for the first time in three weekends.

As the Royals head into the tenth game of the season Friday against Kelowna, forward Kevin Sundher leads the way offensively with 15 points. Sundher is tied with Vancouver Giants' forward James Henry for the WHL lead in assists with 12, which includes a four assist night last Friday against the Tigers. The four assists marked a single game high for Sundher in his WHL career and is also his second four point game.

Friday’s hero also enjoyed a four point night. Defenceman Hayden Rintoul had two goals and a pair of helpers and had his best single game offensive performance since January 21, 2009, when he had a hat-trick and five points against the Prince Albert Raiders for the Kootenay Ice. Rintoul is tied for third in scoring among WHL defencemen with four goals and eight points and trails only Martin Gernat (5g-7a-12pts) of the Edmonton Oil Kings and Derrick Pouliot (3g-7a-10pts) of the Portland Winterhawks.

Rintoul’s four point game against the Tigers was the first by a Royals’ defenceman since Brandon Manning had a goal and three assists for the Chilliwack Bruins against the Calgary Hitmen on October 29, 2010.

Forward Logan Nelson continues to be a nice story for the Royals this season. Until the Giants held Nelson without a point Monday, the 18-year-old product of Rogers, Minnesota, had reeled off a league-high seven game point streak, where he produced his season totals of six goals and 12 points over that span. The streak has since been tied by Emerson Etem of the Tigers. Nelson is tied with Gernat for the WHL rookie lead in points and shares the goals lead among rookies with forward Alessio Bertaggia of the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The Royals also had a pair of players find the back of the net for the first time in their WHL careers. 17-year-old forward Austin Carroll scored his first goal against the Seattle Thunderbirds Saturday night. The Chiefs drafted Carroll in the ninth round of the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft. 18-year-old forward Lukas Kralik, the 36th overall pick of the Royals in the 2011 CHL Import Draft, notched his first goal Monday in Vancouver.

Friday night is Vegas Night at the Royals’ game against Kelowna, featuring broadcast partners 100.3 The Q ‘s Vegas Crapshoot, where lucky contestants will have the opportunity to roll a pair of oversized dice for the chance to win a trip for two Las Vegas. Puck drop Friday and Saturday is 7:05pm.

[CdnSailor]

Doyle Potenteau
2011-10-12


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After watching his team get drubbed twice on the weekend, Ryan Huska would like to see a bounce-back effort tonight. Trouble is, the Medicine Hat Tigers are bouncing into the Okanagan with a good spring in their step.

“Medicine Hat is a very good team,” said Huska, head coach of the Kelowna Rockets, whose team was outscored 10-3 and outshot 83-41 in respective 5-2 and 5-1 losses to Tri-City on Friday and Spokane on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Medicine Hat enters Prospera Place having won two in a row, 5-4 over the Vancouver Giants on Saturday and 5-4 over the Kamloops Blazers on Monday. They‘ve also won three of four games on a five-game B.C. road trip, which concludes tonight.

Pacing Medicine Hat (5-3-0-0) is right-winger Emerson Etem, a 19-year-old California product who has 12 goals and 14 points in seven games so far. Last season, he had 45 goals and 80 points in 65 regular-season games and was also named to Team U.S.A. for the 2011 World Junior Hockey Championship.

Etem, who leads the league in goals, was also named the WHL‘s player of the week on Tuesday, having scored six goals and one assist in three games last week.

“(The Tigers) have some very good skilled forwards up front and everybody knows Emerson Etem is off to a very good start in the goal scoring department this season,” Huska said. “So we‘re going to make sure we pay attention to him and their other skilled players.”

Asked if playing a good team is what the doctor ordered after a losing weekend – getting back to work and quickly forgetting the weekend – Huska said it‘s not about the challenges that the other team will present, but the challenges from within.

“It‘s more important to see our group playing the right way, especially moreso at the beginning of the season than maybe who we‘re playing against,” Huska said. “We have to get ourselves to the point where we‘re comfortable with our game and how we‘re asking our players to work. That‘s why we should be excited to be back at home and looking forward to the game.”

Medicine Hat is second in the Central Division with 10 points, though they‘re tied with Kootenay (4-1-0-2) and trail Edmonton (5-2-1-1) by two points.

On the flip side, Kelowna (3-2-0-0) started the season with three consecutive wins and had the best record in the B.C. Division until this past weekend. Now with six points, the Rockets are last in the five-team loop, though just three points behind the first-place Vancouver Giants (4-3-0-1), who have played three more games than Kelowna.

“The guys were, of course, down after losing (twice),” said Huska. “Nobody likes to lose, especially in the fashion that we did. Spokane was a bit of a wake-up call. Hopefully it‘ll allow them to realize that we‘re not going to win unless we play as a team and we outwork our opponents.

“This is something that you go through at certain times in a season, and we happened to go through it in a game that was early in the season. I think that‘s a positive, because now we can go back to basics and solidify our foundation.”

Tonight‘s contest is the first of four in what will be a busy week for Kelowna. After Medicine Hat, the Rockets visit Victoria (4-5-0-0) for a double dip in Victoria against the Royals on Friday and Saturday, then trek to Kamloops for a 6 p.m. game against the Blazers (4-2-0-0) on Sunday.

In related news, the WHL will announce today at 3:30 p.m. PT the host site for the 2013 Memorial Cup. The three teams bidding for the Cup are the Rockets, Red Deer Rebels and Saskatoon Blades. The Prince George Cougars also threw their name into the bidding ring, but were eliminated on June 15 when the WHL announced its three-team short list.

Kelowna is likely the outsider of the three, having played host to the tournament in 2004 while also having the smallest rink of the three (6,007 seats). Saskatoon, which has the largest rink (15,195) last played host in 1989, while Red Deer (rink size: 5,735 but plenty of room for expansion) has never had the privilege of hosting the Memorial Cup.

“It‘s been an exciting time,” Huska said of Kelowna‘s Memorial Cup bid. “There‘s been a lot of effort put into the bid by the committee here. I know Gavin and Bruce Hamilton have been very busy, along with a few other key people in regards to this bid. I know their presentation will go well, and, hopefully, we get the result we want.”

[CdnSailor]

Kelowna is now heading to Victoria on a sour note loosing this evening to Medicine Hat.
Kelowna is currently on a three game loosing streak

"Go Royals Go"

[50sWHLer]

Yeah, well isn't that just TOO BAD !!! Boo Hoo!!

Let that "Rocket' LOSING STREAK CONTINUE !!

GO ROYALS GO !!

[Squig]

Cuz i will be in the house cheering on our boys!!

Go Rocket Go!!

[pontcanna]

It's all in the family for Royals, Rockets

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM OCTOBER 13, 2011 10:05 PM

Move over Richard Dawson.

The Western Hockey League’s version of Family Feud goes tonight and Saturday when the Victoria Royals (4-5) hook up against the Kelowna Rockets (3-3) at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

Royals owner Graham Lee and president Dave Dakers learned a load from the Rockets and had front-row seats to watch one of the most successful WHL franchises — one that has finished first or second in the B.C. Division nine of the past 11 seasons. The Lee-owned and Dakers-run RG Properties of Vancouver operates Prospera Place for the City of Kelowna, home of the Rockets, although RG doesn’t own the Rockets team.

“This weekend is going to be fun,” said Dakers, who lived in Kelowna running Prospera Place from 1998 to 2006.

RG’s stake in Victoria is far greater because not only does the company operate the Memorial Centre on behalf of the City of Victoria but Lee also owns the Royals after purchasing the Chilliwack Bruins for a reported $5.5 million and moving the franchise to the capital over the off-season.

A lot of the lessons garnered while watching the Rockets go to four Memorial Cup national championships (three as WHL champions and once winning as hosts under current Royals GM and head coach Marc Habscheid) are now being applied to the Royals.

“The Rockets [owned and managed by Bruce Hamilton] are a good organization that has pumped out a lot of good players and that doesn’t happen by luck,” said Dakers.

It happens by design.

“What the Rockets have done, and what we have taken note of, is the consistency of effort year in and year out. They never sacrifice tomorrow for today and that’s a lesson we have learned.”

Indeed, the mantra of this first Royals season under Habscheid seems to be to watch out for tomorrow. The Royals are one of the youngest teams in the WHL and have been built from within during the Chilliwack years through the bantam draft. Trades for veterans — such as those in the off-season that brought captain Hayden Rintoul from the defending WHL-champion Kootenay Ice and starting goaltender Keith Hamilton from the Portland Winterhawks — are few and strategically targeted and not done out of habit.

“The Rockets were built as a team and we talk about that here in Victoria,” said Habscheid, who coached Kelowna for four seasons.

“Everyone within the organization was on the same page and had the same goals.”

Added Dakers: “I’m still a fan of the Rockets.”

But, of course, with RG having far more invested in its Victoria operations through ownership of the franchise here, he wants the Royals to beat the Rockets.

Victoria fans, meanwhile, have no vested interest in Kelowna arena matters and don’t care about RG’s other life in the Okanagan. They only care about this one on the Island.

Both clubs will be looking to turn losing trends. The injury-riddled Royals have lost their last two games and are 1-4 in their last five after starting the season 3-1. The Rockets have lost their last three games after beginning the season with three wins.

LOOSE PUCKS: Keith Hamilton is expected to get the start in goal for the Royals tonight. . . . Still out with injuries are defencemen Tyler Stahl and Zack Habscheid and forward Brandon Magee.

[pontcanna]

Whoa...the Rockets were so damn clinical and we were confused...could see why they were ranked as a top team at season's start. Hamilton having only an OK game...Kelowna on course for 50 shots as the halfway point of the game approached. And then they folded up like the proverbial cheap suit and got a total of 4 more shots the rest of the way home. Jones' one timer was a tonic for the troops and at least raised the possibility of a competitive third period. And in the end it really wasn't competitive at all - we steamrolled them. 6,000 in the place again for a real thriller. This kind of entertainment sells itself. Roll on tomorrow night

[CdnSailor]

7 5


Royals 1/7 PP
Rockets 3/6 PP

Three Stars
1. VIC - 25 Robin Soudek
2. VIC - 14 Zane Jones
3. KEL - 18 Shane McColgan

Attendance: 5936

Game Summary
http://www.whl.ca/schedule/show/game/59479

[pontcanna]

Royals' attack grounds Rockets

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM OCTOBER 14, 2011 10:32 PM



The Kelowna Rockets were Czech-mated Friday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

The Victoria Royals’ two European imports provided crucial contributions as the home side rallied from a 5-2 deficit with five unanswered goals for a dramatic 7-5 Western Hockey League victory before 5,936 fans.

Veteran 20-year-old Robin Soudek scored twice and added an assist, while rookie Lukas Kralik, also from the Czech Republic, scored the winner at 14:27 of the third period.

Trailing by three goals at 6:42 of the second and by two after two periods, the situation looked grim for the Royals.

“We still had time to pick it up,” said Soudek.

“I’m a quiet leader but Hayden [captain Rintoul] and Tim Traber talk a little more in the room,” he added, about what was said before the final frame in which Victoria scored four goals.

It was head coach Marc Habscheid who got his message across loudest and clearest.

“Our coach was angry,” said Kralik, who speaks limited English.

So the rookie responded in the universal language of hockey by coming out of the penalty box at the most opportune moment. Kralik swallowed up the puck and went in all alone and made it 6-5 with a fine backhanded shot for his second goal in as many games and first two on the season.

“I have a good backhand and tried it,” he said.

“The crowd was very nice [in boisterously urging the Royals to rally].”

Royals forward Zane Jones, who scored his first two goals of the season, also cited the Victoria crowd for helping lift the team.

“How can you quit [when behind] when you have a crowd like that behind you every night?” asked Jones.

“Even if your legs don’t have it anymore, the crowd here gets you going.”

Maybe that’s why the Royals are 5-5 overall, but 3-1 at home.

Soudek opened scoring at 5:32, thanks to a cunning move by linemate Kevin Sundher that got the play going. The pair were at it again at 14:55 with Soudek scoring off another Sundher assist.

“We’re two of the more experienced guys on the team and we try to use that,” said Soudek, who’s undrafted.

The Rockets led 3-2 after the first period through Spencer Main’s fourth of the season found the top corner at 9:43 followed by a scrambly goal by Colton Heffley, his first of the season, at 12:02 and a power-play goal by Jesse Lees at 16:43, his first of the campaign.

Then at 4:35 of the second period, Kelowna’s big two showed why they are that. Colton Sissons, a player to watch for in the 2012 NHL draft, counted his fifth goal of the season off a clever assist from 2011 fifth-round New York Rangers draft pick Shane McColgan to make it 4-2. Kelowna forward Myles Bell put a three-goal cushion between the clubs at 6:42 with a well-placed shot on the power play. Jones, with his first of the season, pulled Victoria to within 5-3 off a crisply-executed setup by Jamie Crooks at 8:35 of the second.

Jones made it 5-4 at 4:44 of the third period before Victoria levelled at 11:17 on a power-play counter by Crooks. That cued Kralik’s winner. Logan Nelson put it away with a empty-net goal at 19:08, which was the American rookie’s seventh goal of the season.

Adam Brown, an undrafted invitee to Edmonton Oilers rookie camp, made 27 saves in goal for Kelowna (3-4), which lost for the fourth straight time.

Keith Hamilton made 22 saves for Victoria.

Still missing veteran defencemen Zach Habscheid and Tyler Stahl (concussions) and forwards Brandon Magee (lower body injury) and Brendan Persley (recovering from mono), Habscheid inserted 17-year-old defenceman Turner Popoff and the peppy rearguard showed well in his first game.

The clubs close out their two-game set tonight at 7 in the Memorial Centre.