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

[pontcanna]

Shaw to broadcast Royals, Blazers series

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMES COLONIST MARCH 20, 2012 10:32 PM

The Victoria Royals’ brand received an immense boost with Tuesday’s announcement that their Western Hockey League opening-round playoff series against the Kamloops Blazers will be shown live in its entirety across Western Canada on Shaw TV.

It certainly helped in the decision that this is the lone all-Canadian opening-round series in the Western Conference.

“We had to make a schedule change [to one of the Victoria dates] to make it work but the benefits far outweighed the complications of doing that,” said Dave Dakers, vice-president sports and entertainment for RG Properties, which owns the Royals and operates the Memorial Centre.

The best-of-seven series starts Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. in Kamloops. Games 3 and 4 are next Tuesday and Wednesday 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.

“We don’t see any downside to this.”

Dan Russell will provide the call and Bill Wilms the colour for the broadcasts with Victoria’s Andy Neal hosting between periods. The seventh-seed Royals (24-41-7) are prohibitive underdogs against the second-seed Blazers (47-20-5).

[CdnSailor]

The forward trio of Mike Forsyth, Tim Traber and Dakota Conroy might not get all the headlines, but they have earned the attention of the opposition since they came together in January. It is a line that has been placed against other teams’ top line and yet, in the last encounter Friday night against the Portland Winterhawks, they combined for two goals, two assists and a +5 in a 3-1 victory that clinched a playoff spot for the Victoria Royals. They have gotten to know each other’s style of play since Conroy was acquired from the Brandon Wheat Kings on January 9 and the three have continued to build a strong foundation for a difficult line to deal with for Royals’ foes.

“Right away we noticed chemistry between us three and Marc (Habscheid) recognized that too and he saw that as a positive and ever since we’ve just been creating offence and that’s a bonus for us,” said Forsyth, who led the charge Friday with a goal and an assist and was +3. “The big thing with us is we know where each other are on the ice and in the offensive zone and we just kind of feed off that. Every pass ends up on one of our sticks and if we just keep doing that, I think we can really contribute offensively.”

“We’ve been playing hard nosed and we got rewarded in the last game,” said Conroy. “We just do whatever Marc wants us to do and right now it’s just to bring energy and finish off our checks. Our line has shown that it’s capable of scoring goals, too.”

The hard work the three have shown to help keep the puck out of the Royals’ net has led to the trio chipping in at the other end of the ice.

“I think Conroy has helped them by adding some skill to the line-up and he’s a pretty heady player,” said Royals’ General Manager and Head Coach Marc Habscheid. “The other two guys have some skill too, but they work hard, they crash and bang and get their opportunities out of it.”

“(Conroy’s) got the scoring touch,” said Traber, who had three goals and 12 points on the season. “Mike and I are pretty hard. It’s nice when we’re working down low and he’s in the slot and we get him the puck and he can bury it, so it’s pretty nice.”

“First and foremost, our hard work helps,” added Forsyth. “Trabes and I like to pride ourselves on working hard and Conroy adds a lot of skill on our line. We just out-worked our opponents and we created a lot of turnovers and that’s how we scored the goals that we did Friday. They were two big goals.”

The Royals handed out their team hardware Saturday afternoon as Traber earned the Hardest Worker Award while Forsyth picked up Unsung Hero honors.

“I like to think that I contribute a lot to the team and guys know that I do," said Forsyth of his award. "Sometimes it doesn’t go as noticed as you’d like, but that award made me feel good about myself because no matter what I do, my teammates know that I’m doing my best. Sometimes you get looked over a little bit, but getting that award boosted my confidence a lot, that’s for sure.”

“We have a lot of guys that could have won that award, too, so I was fortunate enough to win that," saidTraber.

Now that line, and the rest of the Royals, gets set to face a Kamloops Blazers’ squad that was third in goals scored in the WHL with 290. The BC Division champs, led by 40-goal and 92-point man Brendan Ranford, pose a big challenge for the Royals, but one they are excited to accept.

“I know that we’re a gritty, hard-working team and I know anything can happen in the playoffs,” said Conroy, one of about a dozen playoff rookies on the Royals’ roster. “We have confidence in ourselves as every team should. Those two wins over Portland help as a young team and reassure us that we can play with any team in the league. It definitely gives us a boost, but we have to dust it off and look forward to the task at hand.”

“They’re a quick team and they have good all-around players,” said Traber. “We just have to work hard and do our systems properly and come together as a group like we have in the last five or six games.”

“They are very tough to beat in their building. They’ve got really good fans and no doubt it will be a packed house,” added Forsyth. “If we come in there and play our game and work as hard as we can, then our chances will be pretty good.”

[pontcanna]

Royals lose 4-1 in first playoff game of their first Victoria season

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM MARCH 23, 2012 9:51 PM

KAMLOOPS — The seventh-seeded Victoria Royals played the first playoff game of their first season in enemy territory Friday night, with few signs of support in the announced crowd of 4,948 at Kamloops’ Interior Savings Centre.

Against the second-seeded Kamloops Blazers, the Royals struggled for much of a game that ended in a 4-1 loss.

Kamloops and Victoria have one thing in common — both cities are trying to exorcise demons of junior hockey seasons past.

This was the first WHL playoff game for a Victoria team since 1989. The wretched Cougars franchise then missed the playoffs for five consecutive seasons before being moved to Prince George in 1994. Victoria rejoined the WHL this season when the Chilliwack Bruins were moved to the capital.

Meanwhile, those three yellowing Blazers Memorial Cup national championship banners from 1992, 1994, 1995 hanging from the rafters here at Interior Savings Centre seem to mock a formerly proud Kamloops fan base that hasn’t seen its team advance past the first round of the playoffs since 1999.

Included in that sorry streak have been seven first-round series losses in four-game sweeps and two seasons of missing the playoffs. With Friday night’s win, the Blazers are still only 6-40 in the playoffs since 1999.

“We haven’t had good seasons since 1999 but I think it’s back,” said Jason Chambers, a Blazers season ticket holder for 15 seasons. “People are talking about the team a bit more around town, but I’d like to see a little more liveliness in the building.”

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be played Saturday night at Kamloops at 7 p.m.

The Royals are back home for games on Tuesday and Wednesday night.

[the Royal Flush]

not really certain what game pontcanna was watching but i didnt think we struggled throughout the game...again our achilles heel was our weak goaltending...the big save at the right time was again not to be found...after watching the first goal i thought "my 82 year old mother in law has better lateral movement than Hamilton"...the game was in my opinion closer than the score reads...give Rathjen the start tonight...although i feel bad for the kid,the Hamilton experiment has been a colossal failure and should be terminated immediately...Habshied,for the love of God please give the team and the fans a chance to win one or two.