Another day, another favour.
The Victoria Royals’ run of luck on the out-of-town Western Hockey League scoreboard continued Sunday with the Everett Silvertips beating the Spokane Chiefs 6-3.
The result left the Royals in seventh place in the Western Conference, one point ahead of the Chiefs and Prince George Cougars, in the battle for a playoff berth. Eight teams will advance to the conference post-season. The Cougars have two games in hand on the Royals and Chiefs.
But the Royals (19-34-6) know they can’t rely on the generosity of others. They will have to help themselves, something they did in abundance with a weekend sweep of the Cougars at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, and by going 5-4-1 over their past 10 games.
“Our hard work is paying off,” said Royals head coach and general manager Dan Price. “Our players have really committed to doing the difficult things.”
Up next for the Royals, who have nine regular-season games remaining, are the Kelowna Rockets tonight and Wednesday night at the Memorial Centre. The Rockets have a playoff berth sewn up at 34-16-6 but Victoria has played them tough this season. Although the season series reads 9-1 from Kelowna’s viewpoint, it is 1-5-4 from Victoria’s perspective, with four of those Kelowna victories recorded in overtime or shootout.
“This is a big test and a big hurdle for us,” said Price.
“A big emphasis for us in preparation has been about closing out against the Rockets, and getting that extra goal against them, especially if it goes to overtime again.”
Although Victoria’s desperation meter reads higher, Price said Kelowna is also more than motivated: “They are playing for playoff seeding.”
The Rockets offence is led by the efficient pair of Colton Dach, a second-round NHL draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks, and Pavel Novak, a fifth-round pick of the Minnesota Wild, who has twice represented the Czech Republic in the world junior championship.
Price has been more-or-less rotating his crease between Tyler Palmer and Campbell Arnold, with both ranging from solid to outstanding on the season, but the back-to-back starts for Palmer against Prince George over the weekend got people talking. Price, however, said not to read too much into that. It is still very much 1-A and 1-B: “There is no pecking order between them. We believe we have a good 1-2 punch.”
Carrying the load in the crease for Kelowna has been six-foot-seven Talyn Boyko, a fourth-round NHL draft pick of the New York Rangers, who was acquired early in the season in a trade with the Tri-City Americans.
