A battle of soon-to-be teammates concluded Wednesday night in Edmonton with defenceman Blake Fiddler’s host Oil Kings besting forward Cole Reschny’s Victoria Royals 5-1 in a Western Hockey League game before 4,913 fans at Rogers Place.
The players, both ranked by Central Scouting for the first round of the 2025 NHL draft, will be in common cause next week on the Canadian Hockey League team that will play the U.S. Under-18 program in the CHL-USA Prospects Challenge Nov. 26 and 27 in London and Oshawa, Ont.
The pair were on opposite sides of the puck over the summer when Reschny, the co-scoring leader for gold-medallist sa国际传媒, and U.S. captain Fiddler played in the Under-18 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. Fiddler, the son of former NHLer Vern Fiddler, played his youth hockey in Texas.
Reschny, returning to the Victoria lineup after missing two games to injury, was held off the scoresheet Wednesday in the Alberta capital. Defender Fiddler had a plus-1 rating for the Oil Kings (9-10-2).
It was a busy start to the game with Adam Jecho, on the power play, and Cole Miller getting Edmonton off to a 2-0 start in the first seven minutes. Victoria rookie defenceman Keaton Verhoeff, gold medallist with sa国际传媒 White this month in the World Under-17 Challenge, again showed why he is projected as a first-round selection for the 2026 NHL draft by scoring on the power play for his sixth goal of the season to bring the Royals (12-7-3) to within one at 10:02 of the opening period.
But that’s as good as it got for the visitors. Luke Powell restored Edmonton’s two-goal advantage at 16:23 of the first period while goals by Joe Iginla in the second period and Miller’s second of the game in the third period put it away for the Oil Kings. Victoria goaltender Spencer Michnik had a busy night parrying 34 of the 39 shots that came his way. Alex Worthington made 26 saves in goal for the Oil Kings.
“We didn’t have too many guys playing their best game,” said Royals head coach James Patrick, in his post-game media scrum.
“I don’t believe we took that team lightly. Their record is not that good but they have played 15 road games and this division [Central] is maybe the best division in the league. It is a highly skilled team with a lot of speed that has been home for a week now.
“Our compete for loose pucks was not where it needs to be and we were not executing our passes. We made it awfully hard on ourselves.”
Victoria went to 3-2 on their eight-game road trip, the longest of the season. The Royals head down Alberta Highway 2 to play Friday night in Calgary against the Hitmen (8-7-4) and Saturday night in Red Deer (9-9-2) against Rebels captain Ollie Josephson from Victoria, an NHL draft pick of the Seattle Kraken. The extended swing concludes Nov. 27 in Everett, Washington, against the Silvertips 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 the Memorial Centre Nov. 29-30 against the Thunderbirds.
