VICTORIA 3 VANCOUVER 0
While the junior hockey world’s focus was on the world junior championship in Alberta being cancelled Wednesday, the Victoria Royals and Vancouver Giants had a big division rivalry game to worry about.
And for the second game in a row, it was the Royals triumphing, this time by a 3-0 score in front of 2,608 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. That comes on the heels of a 3-1 Victoria win Monday at the Langley Events Centre. The two teams meet again tonight at the Memorial Centre to wrap up a three-game set.
On Wednesday, it was a rookie and a veteran leading the way for the Royals offence. After a scoreless first period, Royals forward Matthew Hodson beat Giants netminder Connor Martin six minutes into the second. It was 18-year-old Hodson’s first WHL goal in just his third game after battling injuries the first half of this season.
Near the end of the second period, Royals leading scorer Bailey Peach ignited the sparce crowd with a lacrosse-style goal from behind the net to put the home team up 2-0. Peach would round out the scoring with an empty-netter for his 15th goal of the season and team-leading 35th point. Tyler Palmer picked up the win and shutout in goal for the Royals, stopping all 50 shots he faced, while Martin made 19 saves in a losing cause.
The victory moved the Royals (11-14-4-0), who hold down the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, to within three points of the sixth-place Giants (14-15-1-0).
With both teams expecting their world junior team players — Keanu Derungs (Switzerland) for the Royals and Justin Sourdif (sa国际传媒), Fabian Lysell (Sweden) and netminder Jesper Vikman (Sweden) for the Giants — back this weekend now instead of mid January, the tournament being cancelled had a bit of a silver lining for the WHL teams. The extra bodies couldn’t come at a better time for the Royals. Victoria was again down several bodies due to injuries. Headlining the list of walking wounded are captain Tarun Fizer and 20-year-old forward Evan Patrician who are both listed as week-to-week.
After tonight’s game, the Royals hit the road for three games beginning Saturday in Kelowna.
LOOSE PUCKS: Earlier Wednesday, the Royals announced they signed 16-year-old forward Alex Edwards. The Grand Forks product was playing for the Kelowna Chiefs of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League where he had six goals and six assists in 24 games. … The WHL announced Wednesday it is postponing four January games that were to be played in Manitoba due to arena capacity restrictions put in place by the provincial government (maximum 250 fans in large arenas). The games being rescheduled are: Red Deer at Brandon on Saturday, Moose Jaw at Winnipeg on Jan. 3, Calgary at Brandon on Jan. 7 and Calgary at Winnipeg on Jan. 8. The league plans to reschedule the games later in the season.
