The Red Deer Rebels know exactly where they will be in May, something none of the other 59聽teams in the Canadian Hockey League can say for sure at this point.
Red Deer, the host team with an automatic berth into the 2016 CHL Memorial Cup championship tournament, brought its act to the Island on Friday.
It turned out to be a good one, as the Rebels handed the Victoria Royals (7-2) just their second loss of the WHL season.
The Rebels鈥� 3-1 victory before 5,803 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre ended a two-game skid for Red Deer (6-4), which began its sa国际传媒 Division tour with losses earlier in the week in Kamloops and Kelowna.
The defeat for Victoria came after it achieved a franchise-record-high No. 5 ranking in the weekly CHL top-10 poll.
The game was played at a kinetic pace and decided by the 27-save performance of Red Deer goaltender Rylan Toth, the game鈥檚 first star.
Victoria also rang three shots off posts.
It wasn鈥檛 over until Ivan Nikolishin鈥檚 second goal of the game was scored into an empty net in the final minute.
鈥淚t was one of those nights that could have gone either way,鈥� said Victoria forward Keith Anderson, a native of Oregon, who scored his first career WHL goal.
鈥淏ut it didn鈥檛 go our way. It would have been a lot nicer to get [my first goal] in a win.鈥�
Although Rebels defenceman Haydn Fleury escaped with a victory, he can be excused if he never wants to see the Memorial Centre again, which is actually a good bet since this was Red Deer鈥檚 lone appearance of the season on Blanshard Street.
The six-foot-three Fleury was the seventh overall pick in the 2014 NHL draft and the 19-year-old is likely to go pro next season in the Carolina Hurricanes organization.
It was Fleury鈥檚 turnover Friday 鈥� after he simply fell in his own zone with nobody near him 鈥� that allowed Anderson to score on a deft breakaway move to give Victoria the lead at 6:24 of the opening period.
Fleury was also victimized last season at the Memorial Centre by one of the best steals you are going to see in junior hockey when Victoria鈥檚 Tyler Soy picked him clean for a goal.
Nikolishin got Red Deer on the board at 5:52 of the second period Friday on the power play.
It was only the second goal allowed this season by Victoria鈥檚 league-leading penalty kill in 33 opposition chances.
Red Deer winger Evan Polei turned Victoria defenceman Ralph Jarratt to make it 2-1 at 17:39 of the second period for the winning goal.
Coleman Vollrath, named WHL and CHL goalie of the week, made 21 saves for the Royals.
Victoria is on the road for the next four games and 10 of the next 11. The Royal Tour begins tonight in Seattle against the highly regarded Thunderbirds (4-1-1).
