KAMLOOPS 2 - VICTORIA 1
It could be a torturous stretch drive in the Western Hockey League for the Victoria Royals as the Spokane Chiefs continued twisting the screws on the Royals and Tri-City Americans.
The Chiefs, holding the eighth and final playoff slot in the Western Conference, moved three points ahead of the ninth-place Royals and four up on the 10th-place Americans, who maintain a game in hand on both Spokane and Victoria. That was the situation after the spray settled Saturday night following Victoria’s 2-1 loss to the Blazers in Kamloops, Spokane’s 3-1 victory over the Cougars in Prince George and Tri-City’s 8-3 loss to the Winterhawks in Portland.
The Royals (15-32-6) did well in holding the Canadian Hockey League nationally No. 8-ranked Blazers (39-14-2) to a tight game before 3,353 fans at the Sandman Centre. But with 15 games remaining, such things are meaningless now for the Royals. They need points in the standings.
“There’s no acceptance of a moral victory,” said Victoria coach Dan Price, after the 5-4 overtime loss in Kelowna on Friday night. “It’s not me saying that, it’s [the players].”
They know the score Royals enter each game now with one eye on the ice and the other on the scoreboard. “The guys are in the moment,” said Price.
Matthew Seminoff of Kamloops, ranked for this year’s NHL draft, opened scoring at 1:25 of the second period with Dallas Stars-signed sa国际传媒 junior national team player Logan Stankoven making it 2-0 later in the period. Riley Gannon got Victoria on the board in the third period.
In a recurring season theme, Victoria’s goaltending was again stellar with Tyler Palmer named third star with 41 saves. New York Rangers-signed Blazers goaltender Dylan Garand of Langford, who has twice represented sa国际传媒 in the world junior tournament, is out with injury. Garand’s back-up, Dylan Ernst, made 25 saves for Kamloops.
The Royals return to face the Portland Winterhawks on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Memorial Centre.
ICE CHIPS: Three former Royals are among the 16 WHL alumni named to the sa国际传媒 West all-star teams in U Sports. Blueliner Ryan Gagnon, who went from captain of the Royals to captain of the Calgary Dinos, was named to the first team and forwards Jared Dmytriw of the Saskatchewan Huskies and Gary Haden of the Alberta Golden Bears to the second team … The WHL released a statement on the world situation: “The WHL condemns the Russian invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine and wishes for a peaceful and diplomatic resolution soon. The WHL agrees with measures taken by the Canadian Hockey League to cancel the sa国际传媒 Russia Series, and supports sanctions imposed by the International Ice Hockey Federation and Hockey sa国际传媒, suspending Russia and Belarus from international competition and national team events hosted in sa国际传媒.”
