The Victoria Royals continue to put on the miles as their four-game road trip takes them from Portland, where they earned an impressive two points on Wednesday, back north to the Vancouver area where they will take on the Giants at the Langley Events Centre tonight at 7:30.
Not exactly a travel friendly portion of the schedule, which then takes the Royals on to Kelowna for another tough test Saturday night against the division-leading Rockets.
Victoria (26-16-3-1) will return home afterward before ferrying back to Langley a week from today for another encounter with the Giants, who are currently tied in points with the Royals (56) but with a game in hand (at 25-14-4-2).
鈥淥bviously, every game is important. We just have to take it one game at a time. We want to start off strong,鈥� Dante Hannoun said of the road trip.
It began with what head coach Dan Price described as a strong team performance, especially with key defencemen Chaz Reddekopp, Kade Jensen and Mitchell Prowse out, refusing to deviate from the game plan.
鈥淚t was a tough game, driving all the way to Portland just for one game isn鈥檛 ideal and we were short-handed on the back end so we had some young guys playing some big minutes,鈥� added captain Matthew Phillips, who had a goal and two assists in the 4-2 victory in Oregon. 鈥淭he fact that we shut down their top guys and slow the game down a little was a good one.鈥�
They hope to continue the process tonight against the Giants, who are 7-1-2-0 in their past 10 games. Vancouver also swept the Royals 3-1 and 6-2 in a home-and-home series in mid-December.
Hannoun, Phillips and Tanner Kaspick all come into tonight鈥檚 game on streaks. Phillips has three goals and nine helpers in six consecutive games while Hannoun and Kaspick have recorded points in three straight.
Victoria next plays at home on Jan. 27 as the Calgary Hitmen venture to the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
