It is club this week and representative play next week for Cole Reschny of the Victoria Royals and Ben Kindel of the Calgary Hitmen. The forwards — Reschny is ranked by Central Scouting for the first round and Kindel for the second or third rounds of the 2025 NHL draft — were on opposite sides of the puck Friday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary. They join in common cause on the Canadian Hockey League select team that will play the U.S. Under-18 program in the first-ever CHL-USA Prospects Challenge series Tuesday in London, Ont., and Wednesday in Oshawa, Ont.
Reschny and Kindel each scored once for their respective teams as Calgary (11-7-4) defeated Victoria 5-4 in overtime in a Western Hockey League game in the Stampede city. Oliver Tulk led the Hitmen with two goals and two assists. Power-play goals by Hayden Moore and prize rookie defenceman Keaton Verhoeff, with his seventh goal of the season, gave Victoria a 2-0 lead before the game was five minutes old. Victoria’s all-purpose forward Reggie Newman made it 3-1 in the first period. Calgary pulled ahead 4-3 before Reschny’s power-play goal in the third period sent the game to extra time tied 4-4. Carter Yakemchuk decided it for Calgary at 1:39 of overtime.
The Hitmen, meanwhile, heralded the start of the WHL trade season by making a major move before the game and acquired Regina Pats forward Tanner Howe, a 2024 second-round NHL draft pick of Pittsburgh, and who has signed with the Penguins. The Hitmen gave up defenceman Reese Hamilton, named to the CHL team for next week and ranked by Central Scouting for the second or third rounds of the 2025 NHL draft, forward Keets Fawcett and a second-round WHL prospects draft pick in 2027 and a third-rounder in 2025. Howe had an assist in his Hitmen debut Friday against Victoria.
The Royals (12-7-4) went to 3-2-1 on their eight-game road trip, the longest of the season. The Royals head up Alberta Highway 2 tonight to Red Deer to meet the Rebels (9-9-3) and their captain Ollie Josephson from Victoria, an NHL draft pick of the Seattle Kraken. The extended trip concludes Wednesday in Everett, Washington, against the Silvertips (17-3-1) and prodigy rookie defenceman Landon DuPont, only the second player after current Chicago Blackhawks sophomore forward Connor Bedard to receive exceptional status to play in the WHL as a 15-year-old.
The Royals return to Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre next Friday and Saturday against the Seattle Thunderbirds.
ICE CHIPS: Former Royals head coach and GM Dan Price, who spent eight seasons in total with the Victoria club, is now assistant coach of the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League, the farm team of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes.
