4 Game Road Trip

[pontcanna]

Fired-up Rockets a tough test for Royals

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM MARCH 8, 2012 11:01 PM

The math is as brutal as it is simple for the Victoria Royals as they roll into Kelowna tonight for a Shaw-televised Western Hockey League game against the Rockets.

The Royals have five games remaining in the regular season, and while they hold down the eighth and final playoff berth in the Western Conference, they do not control their own destiny.

The ninth-place Seattle Thunderbirds are two points behind Victoria and seventh-place Everett Silvertips one point ahead of the Royals. Seattle and Everett each hold a game in hand on Victoria. If all three clubs were to win out, the Royals would be done. Everett would take seventh place by three points and Seattle and Victoria would finish tied for eighth place with Seattle winning the first and second tiebreakers over the Royals — most overall season wins and most wins in head-to-head matchups.

But it’s hard to imagine either the Thunderbirds, Royals or Silvertips winning out.

Seattle goalie and second-round Colorado Avalanche draft-pick Calvin Pickard is capable of stealing games on his own, but it is highly unlikely the Thunderbirds are otherwise competent enough to win six games in a row. The same goes for Everett.

Which should make the Royals breathe easier, not that they can breathe too easy in their situation. Victoria would lose the tiebreakers and be the odd team out in the case of a three-way tie with Seattle and Everett. The Royals simply need to get points and hope the Silvertips and Thunderbirds don’t.

“We have to find a way to get wins,” said Victoria head coach Marc Habscheid, as the team bus made its way across the border following Wednesday’s key 3-2 loss in Everett.

The Royals received a huge helping hand Wednesday from Prince George, where the Cougars beat the Thunderbirds 3-1. The 10th-place Cougars moved to within four points of Victoria but remain a lesser concern.

Kelowna, meanwhile, is 29-29-9 and assured a playoff berth but can not move up from sixth position. The Rockets don’t have as much at stake tonight and are only 14-16-2 at home. Victoria (21-40-6) matches up well and is 4-3 in the season series, including 2-1 in Kelowna. The Rockets, however, have a three-game winning streak going.

“We haven’t played them [Rockets] in quite a while and they have just swept Kamloops home-and-home and beaten the Chiefs in Spokane,” warned Habscheid.

“Everybody is getting their game together heading into the playoffs. Everybody is ramping it up.”

And any team with a player like second-round Minnesota draft-pick Brett Bulmer, who already has nine NHL games with the Wild, presents problems. The six-foot-one forward has 32 goals this season for the Rockets and is always a handful.

Just which Victoria goalie will be staring down Bulmer and his mates is not yet known. Habscheid said he won’t decide on his starting goaltender until this morning. Veteran Keith Hamilton carried the season load until rookie Jared Rathjen started the last eight games, playing well until Wednesday when he let in three goals on just 13 shots in that costly outing in Everett.

[the Royal Flush]

nice win boys...

[pontcanna]

Nice game, announcers talking about the Royals like we're world-beaters. Good PR on Shaw TV, good call by Habby to go with Kelowna home-town boy Hamilton in net (like putting Rathjen in @ PG). Two dominant games in a row, pity only one win.

But the 'Tips just did us a favour by giving up a goal with 1:31 left to lose to Portland 4-3. The kicker - 'Tips awarded a penalty shot with 5 seconds to go (Winterhawk intentionally dislodged the net) but it was stopped. Following on radio can be exciting sometimes

[pontcanna]

Royals keep playoffs in their sights with win over Kelowna

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM MARCH 9, 2012 11:01 PM

At this time next week, with their regular season concluded, the Victoria Royals will know their post-season fate in the Western Hockey League.

Or lack thereof.

If the Royals do make it to the playoffs, they may point to Friday night's 3-1 victory in Kelowna over the Rockets as being pivotal. It was gut-check time, and Victoria came through with three unanswered goals in the third period.

"We needed to answer the bell and did," said Victoria GM and head coach Marc Habscheid.

"It was a huge game for us, and we carried the play [Victoria outshot Kelowna 37-27]. We played well. Our young group is getting better. Hopefully, it will be enough to get us into the playoffs."

The result moved the Royals into seventh place, one point ahead of the Everett Silvertips, in a Western Conference in which eight teams make the playoffs. The Silvertips, 4-3 losers against Portland on Friday, retain a game in hand. More importantly, with four games remaining, Victoria moved four points up on idle ninth-place Seattle, although the Thunderbirds hold two games in hand and would win all tiebreakers.

Defenceman Myles Bell gave the home Kelowna side the lead Friday night at 9:51 of the second period before 6,037 fans at Prospera Place.

Victoria forward Logan Nelson of Rogers, Minnesota, the 108th-ranked North American skater for the 2012 NHL draft, tied the contest at 1:42 of the third period with his 22nd goal of the season.

"Getting that goal early in the third period by Nelson really helped," said Habscheid.

That was followed by a tidy bookend pair of goals by the Royals — Jamie Crooks' team-leading 35th of the season at 6:22 and defensive-minded blue-liner Brett Cote's first of the season just 35 seconds later.

Habscheid went with veteran WHLer Keith Hamilton in goal after starting rookie Jared Rathjen the past eight games. Hamilton responded by claiming victory in his Okanagan hometown.

"He played well and stopped the ones he should have stopped," said Habscheid. "We need that down the stretch."

Kelowna, which had a three-game winning streak snapped, is 29-30-9 and assured a playoff berth but cannot move up from sixth position. The Rockets didn't have as much at stake and are only 14-17-2 at home. Victoria (22-40-6) matched up well and won the season series 5-3, including going 3-1 in Kelowna.

The Royals managed to keep second-round Minnesota draft-pick Brett Bulmer, who already has nine NHL games with the Wild, in check. The six-foot-one forward has 32 goals this season for the Rockets and opposition teams need to be mindful of him.

The Royals are in Everett tonight before concluding the road portion of their regular season Sunday afternoon in Vancouver against the Giants. Victoria closes out the regular season with a two-game home set Wednesday and Friday against the Portland Winterhawks.

[CdnSailor]

3 1

SCORING 1 2 3 Total
Victoria Royals 0 0 3 3
Kelowna Rockets 0 1 0 1

SHOTS 1 2 3 Total
Victoria Royals 7 17 13 37
Kelowna Rockets 11 7 9 27

Three Stars
1. VIC - 15 Jamie Crooks
2. VIC - 27 Brett Cote
3. KEL - 29 Myles Bell

Attendance
6037

Game Summary
http://www.whl.ca/schedule/show/game/60131

[CdnSailor]

at

Two crucial games happened last night that went the Royals way.
Victoria beat Kelowna and Everett lost to Portland.

Royals have yet to win a game against the Silvertips this season. Tonight will be one of the most crucial games in their new franchise history.

Victoria in currently holding 7th place with Everett biting at their heals in 8th.
Everett also has a game in hand, while Seattle has 2 and is four points behind Victoria.

[rednex50]

Get used to the BS from the SHAW broadcast team. the Bruins/Royals are not the Giants...and Habby is not Don Hay...so why would they offer up any type of neutral bias for a team who is direct competition to their favourite WHL club.

You want proof? Just look up the SHAW broadcast of the brawl at the end of game 5 at the end of the 1st playoff round in season 1. Those 2 goofs balls can't even call a fight right, especially one as epic as that battle. These 2 teams HATED each other, and they were like "what happened here?" Things where said before, during and a certain goal celebrated in a not soo friendly way in our barn that pissed not only the Bruins fans off, but also the players. Bhungal the Warrior stepped up and set the tone that you don't do ***** like that in our barn and not have any consiquences. Of course Giants fans will have a different account of it, but celebrating a goal like you just won the Stanley Cup (if I recall correctly it was the 4th or 5th goal in a 5-1 bad loss to the Giants).

In fact, it was a very close series in which Archibald was given the reigns at the end of the season when Espo when down with a season ending Knee Injury. Archi almost stole game 1 (5-4 OTL), stole game 2 (3-1 W) before the wheels came off in Chilliwack with a 4-0 L in Game 3 and that bad 5-1 L in Game 4. Game 5, a 3-1 L was a very good, tough, chippy game that the Giants tried to knock Aspenlind out of the game with a bad elbow and high stick to his head which went un-called. At the buzzer, words were said, and apparently a couple of racial slurs supposively thrown and Warrior Bhungal and JD Watt went at it...for a great gut wrenching fight, and when that was over, then Hunt tried to get something started and McCue was ready to go, all the players on the ice and looking like it turn into a full fledged brawl before the refs where able to separate everyone and get on with the after game rituals. It is the ONLY known WHL Playoff Series to not end with the "Handshakes"

That was the moment that the Bruins hated the Giants. That was the pivital moment in time. May not have seemed much to the Giants and their fans, but we only disliked them before that fight. The rivalry officially began then (again contrary to Dan Russell who thought the rivalry didn't begin until the Royals home opener this season). Dan Russell is a big tool, a homer and worst of all, a guy who unless its "Vancouver" (Giants or Canucks) then it doesn't exist or matter :S

[pontcanna]

Watched things on and off...that shorthanded goal (we specialise in those, don't we?) making it 2-0 seems to have been the turning point. I wonder if we'll have any gas left for tomorrow AFTERNOON?

So the 'Tips appear to be home and dry, Seattle getting walloped by the Winterhawks (thanks) and PG winning in Kelowna (Rockets living up to their rep for being lousy at home). It couldn't get much tighter...

[dondo]

wow rednex .. talk about revisionist history.. the Bruins were swept every 1st round series after that between the teams, they managed to win a whole 1 game their entire playoff history with the G's - if I recall correctly.

Oddly if the game you are talking about where JD Watt ( the crazy mofo) got the instigator and Wookie and Watt fought Bhungal and McCue, then I'm not really sure what you are talking about.

It was never close, other than a bunch of OT games all of which CWK lost. Bhunghal wasn't a warrior he was thug. McCue was a big tough guy. CWK played a hard-nosed game during that year, but they weren't even in the ballpark of being competitive. This is the Giants team after struggling to become respectable for 5+ years since their inception who made it to the Memorial Cup twice in a row (2006/2007) - so forgive we fans if we didn't think the Bruins were any competition whatsoever, or that there was even a rivalry. I think I do recall Russell's comment though -- along the lines that the Giants and Bruins are not rivals? Is that it?

Personally I never liked Russell. I don't like the way he calls a game, and he misses tons when calling. I find it odd all of these fans of other teams that feel the Giants get special treatment. I personally don't see it and at times I feel we don't get the benefit of the doubt, esp lately, from the league or the officials. But then I suppose I am a biased homer that knows nothing about hockey.

I have to say I am a bit sad to see that the WHL lists, the team historically as Victoria in the playoff and not Chilliwack.

[CdnSailor]

3 0

Victoria ends up with the big goose egg this evening. Everett is now back in 7th place while the Royals fall to 8.
Seattle was trounced this evening and Prince George won there game.
Seattle and Everett play tomorrow. Worse that can happen is that Everett wins and ends up 3 points ahead of Victoria.
Expect Vancouver game will be a washout as Victoria will have played 4 games in 5 days.
If we do win it will be from shear determination.