Perhaps it was the inspiration from having Micah Zandee-Hart in the building with her Olympic gold medal from Beijing and the rousing reception that entailed. Or maybe it was just having the Vancouver Giants in the house.
The Royals defeated the Giants 4-2 before 3,908 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to win the season series 9-3. The Royals have owned the Giants. The trouble is they haven’t owned anybody else in the Western Hockey League. Victoria has only 15 wins, with well over half of them coming against the Giants.
The highlight of the night was a breathless rink-length rush for a power-play goal by Tarun Fizer with less than one second remaining in the middle period. It was the Victoria captain’s second goal of the game. Tanner Scott scored the other two goals on a power play and into empty net. Alex Cotton scored for Vancouver (20-26-2) and also Victoria-product Payton Mount.
Tyler Palmer was splendid in goal for Victoria with 28 saves, several of them difficult, including a penalty shot save on Mount in the first period.
The cross-strait rivalry against the Giants is done. It’s cross-border foes, Tri-City Americans and Spokane Chiefs, the Royals need be more concerned about. Victoria, Tri-City and Spokane are tied for eighth place and the final playoff berth in the Western Conference but the Amerks and Chiefs each hold a game in hand on the Royals. And Tri-City and Spokane play each other three more times with points guaranteed in those games for one of those clubs, which is not good for Victoria. For all intents and purposes, Victoria (15-31-5) is now in survival mode as it heads down the stretch drive and its final 17 games.
“It’s a tight race between Tri-City, Spokane and us and we’ve got to keep it going and getting wins to get a playoff spot,” said Fizer.
The underachieving Giants, meanwhile, never lived up to the pre-season hype of being contenders with the Everett Silvertips and Kamloops Blazers in the Western Conference. So the Giants essentially pulled the plug and decided to salvage what they could out of this disappointing season by unloading a ferry-load of veteran marquee talent at the trade deadline to build for the future by acquiring three first-round picks in the WHL prospects draft.
But the Giants still have Boston Bruins 2021 first-round NHL draft pick and Swedish world junior selection Fabian Lysell, who scored in Friday night’s 4-0 victory over Victoria in Langley, NHL second-round Ottawa Senators draft pick Zack Ostapchuk, who scored twice Friday, and Swedish world junior team goaltender Jesper Vikman, who recorded the shutout Friday and made 20 saves Saturday.
Victoria is in Kelowna on Friday and Kamloops next Saturday before returning to the Memorial Centre to take on the Portland Winterhawks in a two-game set March 8-9. Victoria will then play the Prince George Cougars seven times over its final 13 games.
ICE CHIPS: It was Hockey For All Night, with several of the Royals and Giants players warming up with rainbow-coloured tape on their stick blades.
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