It is certainly one of the quirks of the Western Hockey League season. The lowly Victoria Royals have only 14 wins and eight of them, more than half, have come against the Vancouver Giants.
Victoria leads the season series 8-2. The cross-strait rivalry continues this weekend with the Royals facing the Giants at the Langley Events Centre tonight followed by Vancouver visiting Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Saturday night.
The Giants might well heave a sigh of relief, and the Royals have an equal sense of regret, that these games will conclude the 12-game regular-season series between the clubs.
“It’s an intense rivalry and our guys always get up for these games,” said Royals head coach and GM Dan Price.
The underachieving Giants traded away a ferryload of veteran talent in January to gain three first-round selections in the WHL prospects draft to build for the future. But they still have Boston Bruins 2021 first-round NHL draft pick and Swedish world junior selection Fabian Lysell, Ottawa Senators-signed Zack Ostapchuk and Swedish world junior team goaltender Jesper Vikman. Two Island players, sa国际传媒 Under-17 player Ty Halaburda and veteran Payton Mount, both forwards from Victoria, also help bolster the Giants.
Victoria (14-30-5) sits in a tie with the Tri-City Americans in the eighth and final playoff slot in the Western Conference. The 10th-place Spokane Chiefs are two points behind. The Americans and Chiefs each have a game in hand on the Royals.
The Giants (19-25-2) are in seventh place in the conference, seven points ahead of Victoria and Tri-City, but with three games in hand on the Royals, which makes overtaking the Giants a daunting proposition.
A more apt target might be the Western Conference sixth-place Prince George Cougars, who are eight points ahead of Victoria with the same number of games played. The Cougars and Royals play each other seven times over their respective final 19 games.
Realistically, however, the real battle for the Royals is more in needing to stave off the Americans and Chiefs than in looking up the ladder. Victoria must hold off both those clubs in order to make the playoffs. The trouble is Tri-City and Spokane play each other four more times with points guaranteed in those games for one of those clubs, which is not good for Victoria.
The Royals will close out the season April 15-16 with two home games against the Chiefs, which right now look to be must-wins, as are almost all the games the Royals have remaining.
“Every game is really important this time of year as every team is jockeying for position,” said Price.
At the other end of the table, the WHL is having a powerhouse season and dominates this week’s Canadian Hockey League top 10 poll, taking the top three positions, with the Edmonton Oil Kings first ranked, Everett Silvertips No. 2 and Winnipeg Ice No. 3. The Portland Winterhawks at No. 7 and Kamloops Blazers at No. 8 have the WHL holding half the top 10 slots.
