The goal is to reach the Western Hockey League post-season, but in terms of pressure and every game meaning something, the Victoria Royals are subjectively already there.
“These last five [regular-season] games feel like playoff games,” said Royals GM and head coach Dan Price.
The stretch drive into the final quintet of games begins tonight in Kelowna against the Rockets with the Royals missing captain Tarun Fizer. The 20-year-old begins a three-game suspension for a major penalty and game misconduct assessed for kneeing in Victoria’s last game last Saturday. Price said it was a matter of two players “colliding awkwardly.” It was an inopportune challenge, regardless, especially with the game against Prince George out of reach at 3-0 for the Cougars with just over a minute remaining in the third period.
“It’s the next man up mentality,” said Price.
“We’ve gone through this so many times this season [mostly through injuries to important players] at key moments.”
Heading into Friday night, the Royals were tied for sixth place in the Western Conference with Vancouver but the Giants had three games in hand. Prince George was in eighth place and three points behind the Royals and Giants with two games in hand on Victoria (22-35-6). The Spokane Chiefs were in ninth place and seven points in arrears of Victoria with two games in hand on the Royals. The Tri-City Americans were in 10th place and nine points behind the Royals with a game in hand. Eight teams will make the playoffs in the Western Conference.
The Cougars, Chiefs and Americans were all in action Friday night with their games in progress at press time. Prince George was playing in Kelowna, meaning the idle Royals will be looking for a quick start tonight to take advantage of the Rockets being in a back-to-back games situation.
“We came off six games in nine nights last weekend, so we used all this week for regeneration and to reenergize,” said Price.
The Rockets (35-19-6 heading into Friday night) are among five Western Conference teams to have clinched a playoff berth, along with Everett, Kamloops, Portland and Seattle.
Kelowna is led by the trio of Chicago Blackhawks second-round NHL draft pick Colton Dach, touted 16-year-old rookie Andrew Cristall and Pavel Novak, a fifth-round NHL draft selection of the Minnesota Wild who has twice represented the Czech Republic in the world junior championship.
The season series is 9-3 from Kelowna’s perspective, with Victoria winning the last two games. From Victoria’s viewpoint, the season series is 3-5-4 with four of those Kelowna victories recorded in overtime or shootout.
The Royals are in Kamloops to play the Blazers next Friday and in Prince George to meet the Cougars next Saturday before closing out the regular season with two potentially critical home games against Spokane on April 15-16.
