Round 1 Victoria and Kamloops

[CdnSailor]

and

Royals enter WHL playoffs against heavily favoured Kamloops in battle-ready condition

Rain Man was named best picture and the Berlin Wall was still up the last time a Victoria team played in the Western Hockey League playoffs, during the spring of 1989.

That was followed by five consecutive seasons of missing the post-season before the hapless Victoria Cougars franchise was moved to Prince George in 1994. Nothing has changed much for the latter — the Prince George Cougars are still missing the playoffs. But the Victoria Royals, the former Chilliwack Bruins before moving to the capital this season, are in and will meet the Kamloops Blazers in a Western Conference best-of-seven opening-round series starting Friday and Saturday in the Interior.

Games 3-4 are Tuesday, March 27, and Thursday, March 29, at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. If required, the remaining games would be Friday, March 30, in Kamloops, Monday, April 2, at the Memorial Centre and Wednesday, April 4, in Kamloops.

But according to some pundits, the seventh-seed Royals (24-41-7) needn’t bother with the first WHL playoff games by a Victoria team in 23 years because it’s apparently a hopeless cause against the second-seed Blazers (47-20-5). That’s fine, bring on the bulletin board clippings, says Victoria GM and head coach Marc Habscheid.

“Some people are picking them [Blazers] in three games, not just four,” he chuckled.

“We shouldn't even go to Kamloops, the way it sounds. All I know is, we’ll show up Friday when the puck is dropped.”

Kamloops has its own sorry recent history with which to contend. The Blazers’ halcyon era of the three Memorial Cups was in the mid-1990s when Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine were in first run on TV and Donovan Bailey was still running on the track. The Blazers haven’t been past the first round of the playoffs since 1999.

On paper, that 13-year streak of futility should end as Kamloops is clearly favoured to get past Victoria to the second round.

Habscheid, of course, isn’t giving away an inch of pre-series ground. But he does give credit where it’s due. The Royals were 1-6-1 this season against a Kamloops squad that had a remarkable turnaround after missing the playoffs last year.

“They are a good team and ranked highly [No. 8 among major-junior teams in North America],” Habscheid said.

“They have earned that status and are an older team built for this season.”

Which means the Blazers have more to lose, too.

“They've got all the pressure on them,” Habscheid said.

And an intriguing recent trend is that the Royals seem to be coming on while the Blazers have struggled of late. Both teams are 4-5-1 over their last 10 games, with the Royals already having gone through playoff-like games to clinch one of the final two post-season berths in the Western Conference, which they did in the final period of the final game of the regular season Friday.

“We’ve [essentially] been in the playoffs now for three weeks and are in that mode already,” Habscheid said.

“We’ve been scratching and clawing.”

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com



Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/...#ixzz1pWsimEyG

[CdnSailor]

Note everyone, game 4 was originally scheduled for March 29th has been rescheduled for WEDNESDAY MARCH 28!! Game 3 & 4 will be back to back!!

[pontcanna]

Predictions, anyone?

I'm hoping for better but I think it'll be Kamloops in 5.

[IR_Hockey]

In 2012 the Royals are only 1-2-0-0 against the Blazers. This is significant because I think the Royals have improved as the season has gone along, especially in March. If the team that beat Portland shows up, I think it could be a long series.

From what I understand, Kamloops is dealing with the Habscheid curse, and have a terrible post season record. A few of our guys have playoff experience, so that should help. Hopefully our key young guys like Nelson, Walker, Conroy, and Jones can deal with the added pressure, and perform to the best of their ability.

[CdnSailor]

Shaw Cable will be showing the complete 1st series of Victoria and Kamloops.

http://www.victoriaroyals.com/articl...und-one/119245

[pontcanna]

Couldn't make that link work. How about this one:

http://victoriaroyals.com/article/20...shaw-round-one