Vladimir Bobylev and Ryan Peckford scored goals 2:12 apart by the 6:46 mark of the first period to pace the Royals to a 3-2 victory over the Kamloops Blazers on Wednesday night, ending the 2015 portion of the 2015-16 Western Hockey League campaign.
They began the year with an 8-1 triumph over Spokane on Jan. 2 as part of the 2014-15 season.
鈥淎 nice way to finish off our year. It was a good character win,鈥� said assistant coach Enio Sacilotto, who carries the interim head coach tag while Dave Lowry is away at the world junior championship. 鈥淭hat was the key, the guys came out quick and got us off to that fast start. They did tie it up, but the boys were ready to go tonight.鈥�
Victoria hopes to open 2016 with another win at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops on New Year鈥檚 Day with a rare afternoon start at 2 p.m.
The Wednesday win was the start of seven games in 11 days for the Royals and the third of nine in 14 days if you go back to the Sunday and Monday matchups against Prince George, in which Victoria took three of a possible four points.
Victoria improves to 23-12-1-2 and has points in its last three games. The Blazers fall to 17-14-3-1 and have lost three straight after coming off a pair of one-goal losses to Kelowna.
Matthew Phillips recorded the winning goal for Victoria at 8:45 of the second period.
Jermaine Loewen had cut the Royals鈥� lead to 2-1 at 13:40 of the first as the visitors outshot the Blazers 22-8 in the opening 20 minutes. Jake Kryski had the other Kamloops goal to tie it briefly at 5:17 of the second.
The Royals are now 4-1 against Kamloops this season, having out-scored the Blazers 17-9.
Coleman Vollrath started in net for the Royals and faced 18 of his 38 shots in a busy third period in his third game in four nights. His appearance on Sunday allowed him to surpass Lucas Gore for most minutes played in franchise history (the previous record was 7,707 minutes), slipping by the former Chilliwack Bruins鈥� netminder in the 6-2 win.
In Kamloops, Victoria fired a season-high 43 shots at Connor Ingram.
鈥淲e had a lot of good looks,鈥� said Sacilotto. 鈥淭he shots evened out late, but that鈥檚 because they were pressing.鈥�
