The Victoria Royals prevailed in a battle of depleted teams Monday night at the Langley Events Centre as the Western Hockey League returned from its Christmas break.
The Royals, minus 12 players due to injuries and world junior championships, got a pair of goals from Brayden Schuurman to edge the Giants 3-1 in front of a COVID-capacity crowd of 2,650 at the LEC (50 per cent capacity).
The Giants, missing key players to the world juniors in Edmonton — Justin Sourdif (sa国际传媒), Fabian Lysell (Sweden) and netminder Jesper Vikman (Sweden) — opened the scoring when Kaden Kohle beat Campbell Arnold just 3:23 into the first. Then Schuurman went to work. The 17-year-old from Abbotsford, eligible for this summer’s NHL draft, scored his team leading 14th and 15 goals to send the Royals to the break with a 2-1 lead.
Bailey Peach added a power-play marker mid way through the second and Arnold did the rest, finishing with 39 saves.
Duncan product Will Gurski made 27 saves for the Giants.
The win moved the Royals (10-13-4-0) within five points of the Giants (14-14-1-0) and Victoria has two games in hand.
Among the Royals’s walking wounded Monday was captain Tarun Fizer, who is week-to-week with a lower body injury. The Royals were also without forward Keanu Derungs who was a healthy scratch for Switzerland on Monday at the world junior championship in Edmonton. And fellow import forward Marcus Almquist is playing for Denmark at the Div. 1 world juniors where the winning team is promoted to next season’s world junior championship.
The game was the first of three straight between the sa国际传媒 Division rivals, with the next two going Wednesday and Thursday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Royals called up a pair of 16-year-old affiliated players Monday. Defenceman Justin Kipkie made the trip west from Edge Academy in Calgary and fellow blue-liner Nate Misskey came over from the Prince Albert Mintos U-18 squad. … Royals defenceman Wyatt Wilson sat out Monday serving the third of a three-game suspension.
