When there were seven games remaining before the Christmas break, Victoria Royals head coach Dan Price challenged his players to treat the stretch as a playoff series. They won the mythical WHL “series” four games to three by sweeping the Tri-City Americans 7-6 in a shootout Friday and 6-5 in regulation on Saturday night at the Memorial Centre.
But the question still hangs over Blanshard Street like a December cloud: Will the Royals play in the actual playoffs come spring? That has yet to be answered as they are 10 points adrift of a playoff berth at 7-23-3 but are playing their best hockey of the season.
“Our guys were resilient though all the ups and downs and weird special teams situations this weekend,” said Price.
“They were very level, calm and workmanlike. They did the gritty things you have to do to get wins. It was nothing fancy. It was being very aggressive up the ice.”
Teydon Trembecky, acquired in a trade this season from the Brandon Wheat Kings, wired the winner into the top corner at 10:53 of the third period with his first career WHL goal in his 35th game in the league.
“Trades happen in hockey. But when one door closes, another opens,” said Trembecky, a native of Sherwood Park, Alta.
“It’s surreal. It’s been a while [the first goal in coming]. But we have been preaching getting shots on net and shot volume. There is so much potential here that I believe we are going to take off even more after the break.”
Bring it on, said Price, quipping: “We start a new seven-game ‘series’ after the break.”
The bench boss can only hope the mental ploy leads to real seven-game series in March and April.
The Victoria blueliners were blasting the puck all night, too, with Austin Zemlak scoring his first goal of the season, Justin Kipkie his fourth and Nate Misskey his second. The other Royals goals came from forwards Riley Gannon on a three-point night and Carter Dereniwsky.
Jake Sloan led the Amerks with two goals and an assist. Parker Bell, the six-foot-four winger from Campbell River with the pro-level stride and who was a 2022 NHL draft pick of the Calgary Flames, had an assist for Tri-City and the Islander has 33 points in 28 games.
It was a duel between the two clubs that missed the Western Conference playoffs last season with the Americans now 14-15-1.
Tri-City’s skilled six-foot-two blueliner Lukas Dragicevic, a native of Richmond, is ranked for the first round of the 2023 NHL draft and played for sa国际传媒, alongside Royals Brayden Schuurman and Kalem Parker, in the 2022 IIHF world U-18 championship in Germany. Dragicevic picked up two assists to extend his points streak to 24 games, which has well eclipsed Victoria-produced NHLer and former Kelowna Rockets blueliner Tyson Barrie’s former 21 games for the longest points streak by a WHL defenseman since 2009. Dragicevic’s father, Milan, played for the Americans and in the old Memorial Arena on Blanshard for the Victoria Cougars in a well-traveled WHL career and is now a coach in the Delta Hockey Academy.
The Royals took advantage of two Tri-City stalwarts, goaltender Tomas Suchanek and forward Adam Mechura, being away on national-team duty with Czechia for the 2023 world junior championship beginning Boxing Day in the Maritimes. The absence of Suchanek was especially glaring this weekend with the Royals unloading for 13 goals on the Amerks in the two games.
The Royals return to play following the Christmas break with three consecutive cross-strait games against the Vancouver Giants on Dec. 27-28 at the Langley Events Centre and Dec. 30 at the Memorial Centre.
