It was the Royals鈥� third-straight victory as the team improves to 20-15-4-0 for 44 points. Kelowna, which was without forwards Tomas Soustal, Calvin Thurkauf and Dillon Dube, who are all at the world junior hockey championship, slips to 23-14-2-0.
Outhouse made 27 saves and was named the game鈥檚 first star for the second straight outing. It came after a 40-stop performance in a 3-0 shutout win over Prince George on Wednesday, which followed a 42-save outing the night previous in a 5-1 victory over the same Cougars.
Outhouse went 147 minutes and eight seconds between that last P.G. goal on Tuesday until Cal Foote beat him on a power play at 15:39 of the third period on Friday.
鈥淟ike I said the other night, that鈥檚 what we need and that鈥檚 what we expect. Just make the saves that you have to make, give us a chance to win and steal the odd one that you鈥檙e not supposed to stop,鈥� Royals head coach Dave Lowry said of Outhouse.
Kaid Oliver tallied the winning Victoria goal at 8:17 of the third frame with Kelowna native Chaz Reddekopp earning an assist to extend his point-scoring streak to 10 games in which he has scored four times and added nine helpers.
Reddekopp, a draft pick of the Los Angeles Kings, scored in each of the two recent wins over Prince George.
鈥淚鈥檓 just getting good chances and trying to bear down. Coming into this year, one of the bigger things I wanted to improve was to bear down on those and contribute a bit more offensively,鈥� Reddekopp, a New Year鈥檚 Day baby, said prior to the outing.
Walker scored the opening goal of the game for the second-straight outing, beating former Victoria Cougars and Royals netminder Michael Herringer just 4:12 into the game. Just as importantly, the Royals鈥� shorthanded units killed off a 5-on-3 Kelowna advantage for 1:32 late in the first.
It came on a rough road trip to Kelowna in which the Royals arrived in their hotel rooms after midnight after sitting on the snow-laden Coquihalla Highway for four hours.
鈥淚 give a lot of credit to our guys just in their preparation and getting themselves ready to play,鈥� said Lowry.
The Royals are in Kamloops today at 5 p.m.
