Rogers, over and out.
The Victoria Royals鈥� first experience at the $480-million Rogers Place in the Alberta capital was a memorable one on Friday night, as Matthew Phillips recorded a hat trick in a 6-1 victory against the Edmonton Oil Kings in Western Hockey league play.
Just two days after the National Hockey League鈥檚 Edmonton Oilers played their first game in the 18,641-seat facility, the Royals dumped the Oil Kings in the home team鈥檚 fourth WHL contest in the new digs.
The victory wrapped up a six-game road trip in which the Royals finished 4-2 to sit 5-5 overall. They now return home to begin a three-game homestand at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, starting Tuesday against the Saskatoon Blades, before a weekend set against Swift Current on Friday and Everett on Saturday.
It was exactly the way head coach Dave Lowry wanted the trip to end, especially after a 5-2 loss in Lethbridge on Wednesday.
鈥淲e鈥檒l take it,鈥� Lowry said of the 4-2 log over 10 days. 鈥淲e learned a lot about our group. We did some good things and we did some not-so-good things. Moving forward, we know there鈥檚 a certain way we have to play 鈥� and when we do that, we鈥檙e good. We did the little things tonight that make us a good team.鈥�
Phillips, who also recorded a hat trick against Edmonton last November in Victoria, finished with four points on the night. So did Tyler Soy, who collected a goal and three assists.
Phillips, last year鈥檚 WHL rookie of the year, opened the scoring for the Royals as he gobbled up a turnover and buried it five-hole on goalie Patrick Dea at 8:38 of the first period. Soy made it 2-0 on a power play 3:25 later.
Royals netminder Griffen Outhouse robbed Trey Fix-Wolansky early in the second period. Phillips then recorded back-to-back power-play tallies 1:36 apart, just before the midway mark of the frame, with Brayden Gorda handed a double-minor for high-sticking.
Victoria鈥檚 power play was a solid 3-for-7 on the evening.
鈥淚t was the difference in the game. You score early and take control of the game,鈥� Lowry said of the power play, which snapped out of a funk. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we鈥檝e talked about. I haven鈥檛 been overly concerned because we鈥檝e been getting good looks, and tonight we executed and the guys were rewarded for it.鈥�
Jack Walker and Regan Nagy scored goals less than two minutes apart by the 13:13 mark of the third. Tyler Robertson snapped Outhouse鈥檚 shutout bid on a late power play as the Oil Kings were nearly blanked for a third-straight home game.
Edmonton lost 1-0 to Kelowna on Oct. 7 and 2-0 to Vancouver on Tuesday. Friday鈥檚 game drew 7,176 fans.
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