CALGARY 5 - VICTORIA 2
The Victoria Royals are finding the road in Alberta to be a bumpy one. The Royals (3-12-2) fell to 1-4 on their six-game road swing through the Eastern Conference Central Division, the team’s first such trip since before the pandemic.
The host Calgary Hitmen defeated the Royals 5-2 on Thursday night in a Western Hockey League game at the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex on the Tsuut’ina Nation.
The game was originally scheduled for Wednesday but was postponed a day after the Royals’ bus got caught up in a snowstorm on the way up from Lethbridge on Tuesday night and the team spent the night stranded in a fast-food restaurant in an area where there were no hotels or motels.
Victoria GM and head coach Dan Price didn’t fault his team’s effort: “Our group was very fatigued but fought through it and played hard and the guys kept pushing right to the end.”
Royals defenceman Kalem Parker, ranked for the 2023 NHL draft and who represented sa国际传媒 in the 2022 IIHF world Under-18 championship in Germany, opened scoring with his first goal of the season and now has a goal and seven assists for eight points in his last six games.
The first period ended 1-1 but two Calgary power-play goals within 37 seconds early in the second period swung the game. Matthew Hodson’s sixth goal of the season brought Victoria to within one at 3-2 at 7:54 of the third period but two goals by Riley Fiddler-Schultz, the last into an empty net, sealed the deal for the Hitmen (7-4-2).
Rookie Logan Cunningham, in his second career start, made 28 saves in goal for the Royals. Ethan Buenaventura made 22 saves for the Hitmen.
“Logan Cunningham is showing he is a legitimate WHL goalie,” said Price.
The road trip concludes Friday night at Rogers Place in Edmonton against the defending WHL champions but now last-place Oil Kings (1-12-1) in what is emerging as a pretty much need-to-win game for the Royals to halt their spiral.
The Royals are next at home Nov. 11-12 against the Portland Winterhawks at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
