Ben Walker and Brandon Magee scored second period power-play goals Friday to lead the Victoria Royals to a 4-1 Western Hockey League pre-season win over the Kelowna Rockets in Maple Ridge.
It was the Royals' first exhibition win after 4-2 and 5-3 losses to the Kamloops Blazers.
Zane Jones and Brett Cote also scored for Victoria, while Cole Linaker replied for Kelowna.
Victoria rookie goaltender Cole Vollrath made seven saves during his 30 minutes of work, while Jared Rathjen finished the game with 14 stops. Jordon Cooke went the distance for Kelowna, making 24 saves.
"What tonight's game showed me was that we are a different team with some 20-year-olds in the lineup,'' said head coach Dave Lowry. "We had a bit more experience but our young guys also played well. We want to get our team down to the right number quickly and performance will dictate who starts for us.''
With veteran Victoria defencemen Jordan Fransoo and Tyler Stahl both ejected for fighting game misconducts, Lowry had plenty of opportunities to assess the work of the remaining four - Joe Hicketts, who had two assists, Jack Walker, Kolton Dixon and Cote.
"Those four defenceman were given the opportunity to play lots tonight and they are going to be players in this league.''
Lowry said he wouldn't be making any moves to his 30-man roster until after tonight's game against the Rockets in Kelowna.
