Winning streaks in the WHL come and go like winter rain on Blanshard Street.
The Victoria Royals, who recently had a franchise-record, 11-game victory run snapped, have begun working on a new one currently at two straight. The Royals鈥� 4-1 win Friday night before 6,023 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, meanwhile, halted the Kamloops Blazers鈥� winning streak at four games.
It was typical clamp-down, counter-thrust Royals hockey worked to perfection.
It showed why Victoria is the winningest team in the Western Hockey League in the calendar year 2016, with a 16-4-3 record since Jan. 1.
鈥淲e took away a lot of Kamloops鈥� time and space,鈥� said Victoria coach Dave Lowry.
鈥淲e had a good transition game and were able to score a couple of goals off that.鈥�
The Blazers fell to 27-23-8 while Victoria moved to a league second-best 39-16-6.
The Royals opened with 15-1 shots advantage in about as dominant an opening period as the team has played this season. Five of those shots came from blueliner and Kamloops native Joe Hicketts, with one of them sliding between the legs of Blazers goaltender Connor Ingram to open scoring.
鈥淲e wanted to come out with energy and jump,鈥� said Hicketts.
Jack Walker sliced home a Tyler Soy rebound at 7:34 of the second period to push the Victoria advantage to two.
Alex Forsberg then took a Matthew Phillips pass and literally slid into the net with the puck to make it 3-0 at 13:01. Dante Hannoun banged in a Forsberg rebound in the third period.
鈥淲e like to get pucks and bodies to the net and create some chaos,鈥� said Hicketts.
Coleman Vollrath made 25 saves but was denied the shutout by Matt Needham鈥檚 power-play goal late in the third period. The more harried Ingram was forced into 35 saves for Kamloops.
The Royals and Blazers close out their two-game set tonight in the sold-out Pink in the Rink night to raise funds for cancer research.
