Tyler Brennan of the Prince George Cougars is the top-rated North American goaltender for the 2022 NHL draft.
But he was no match for Bailey Peach’s natural hat-trick in a 3-0 Victoria Royals victory Saturday night as a crowd announced at just over 3,000 made noise approaching full-house decibels at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The result moved Victoria into seventh place and a playoff slot in the Western Conference of the Western Hockey League, a point ahead of Prince George Cougars and the Spokane Chiefs. The Chiefs lost Saturday to the Tri-City Americans, while the Cougars have two games in hand on the Royals and one on the Chiefs. Eight teams will make the playoffs in the conference.
Peach, one of the out-of-nowhere storylines of the season, pushed his Royals season goals lead to 33.
“We knew what was on the line and knew it [Prince George] was a team we had to get points against,” said Peach, a 20-year-old WHL transfer, after being waived through the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in the off-season.
“My coaches and teammates have given me this opportunity.”
Tyler Palmer of Victoria won the battle of the Tylers in goal, making 35 saves for the shutout. Brennan finished with 26 stopes.
The Cougars remained among the biggest mysteries in the WHL. Because of their lowly placings in recent seasons, and trades, the Cougars had seven first-round picks in the WHL prospects draft over the last three years, several of them top-five. That has resulted in five Cougars players ranked for the 2022 NHL draft with Koehn Ziemmer and Riley Heidt projected to go high in the 2023 NHL draft. But the assembled talent has been underachieving mightily at 20-34-3.
The Royals (19-34-6), with nine regular-season games remaining, are back on Blanshard Tuesday and Wednesday nights against the Kelowna Rockets.
