Perhaps it鈥檚 only fitting that Victoria and Prince Albert, cities named in honour of a famous Royal couple, should have so many connections between their hockey teams.
It was almost a family affair Wednesday evening as the Prince Albert Raiders blanked the Victoria Royals 3-0 in WHL action in Saskatchewan before 2,349 fans at the Art Hauser Centre.
The defending WHL-champion Raiders are coached by Marc Habscheid, the first coach and GM of the Royals when they moved to Victoria in 2011-12.
It was also a return to Prince Albert for Royals forward Carson Miller. The player going the other way in that trade last season was Victoria veteran and graduated forward Dante Hannoun, who scored the overtime winner for the Raiders in Game 7 of the 2019 WHL final.
A pair of former Royals blue-liners played for Prince Albert against their old team. Jeremy Masella was selected by Victoria in the 2016 WHL bantam draft and appeared in 63 games for the club before being traded to the Raiders in 2018. Remy Aquilon played 57 games for Victoria and was traded to Prince Albert prior to the start of this season.
Royals head coach Dan Price, meanwhile, scouted for the Regina Pats when current Prince Albert GM Curtis Hunt was head coach of the Pats.
鈥淚 talked to Curtis after the game and we both agreed both teams played well and the game could have gone either way,鈥� said Price.
It perhaps turned on a single play in a scoreless game late in the second period. Royals forward Gary Haden came close to intercepting the puck for a clear breakaway. Instead, he just missed the takeaway up high in his own zone and the puck landed on the stick of a Prince Albert defenceman. Unfortunately for the Royals, that player was Kaiden Guhle. He showed why he is the No. 7 overall ranked North American skater for the 2020 NHL draft. Guhle shot it home for the winning goal at 16:54 of the second period on a two-point night.
Haden, meanwhile, had a four-game points streak (four goals and two assists) snapped.
Ilya Usau scored the insurance goal at 4:11 of the third period before Reece Vitelli sealed it into an empty net at 18:21.
Max Paddock made 17 saves for the shutout as Prince Albert moved to 25-14-9. Adam Evanoff made 24 saves in goal for Victoria. Missing for the second consecutive game was regular Royals crease starter Shane Farkas, out game-to-game with what is being described as an upper-body muscle strain.
Victoria (25-18-4) is in the midst of a six-game winless slide 鈥� with five losses 鈥� after going 8-1-1 in its previous 10 games.
鈥淭he effort was there,鈥� said Price. 鈥淭he room is feeling good and we are confident heading into our next games [Friday in Regina and Saturday in Moose Jaw].鈥�
