VICTORIA聽 4
KAMLOOPS聽 3
鈥淥 Captain! My Captain!鈥� wrote the poet Walt Whitman.
For the Victoria Royals, read: O Matthew! My Captain!
The Royals named forward Matthew Phillips their captain for the 2017-18 WHL season before Saturday night鈥檚 game against Kamloops. Phillips then went out and showed why by drawing a penalty in the last minute, and then assisting Ryan Peckford for the winning goal with 34 seconds remaining in regulation time, as Victoria defeated the Blazers 4-3 before 5,341 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to remain undefeated at 3-0 while Kamloops remained winless at 0-4.
鈥淚t is a huge honour 鈥� surreal 鈥� and not something I take for granted,鈥� said third-year player Phillips, about the captainship, after recording three assists on the night.
鈥淲e have good team leadership as a whole. I am not overly vocal in the room. I work my hardest. For me, the biggest thing [about leading] is just competing hard,鈥� the Calgary Flames draft pick said.
The opportunistic Victoria club鈥檚 special teams remained torrid with three more power-play goals for eight in three games. Peckford had two of the odd-man goals, including the dramatic winner.
鈥淸Phillips] made a great play to draw the penalty and then made a beautiful pass to me on that power play [for the winner],鈥� said Peckford, who has five goals on the season.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great power-play unit. Everybody is skilled and can score.鈥�
Royals head coach Dan Price attributes his odd-man鈥檚 early success to stay-with-it pluck: 鈥淲e have shown good tenacity and second effort to recover the puck, and that creates the second chances needed to score.鈥�
Dante Hannoun scored on the power play for his third goal of the season, while sophomore Oliver Kaid tallied his first goal of the season for Victoria. The Kamloops goals came from Justin Sigrist, Jackson Shepard and veteran blueliner Joe Gatenby.
The Victoria penalty-kill unit allowed its first goal and is now 1-14 in opposition chances, while scoring two goals itself.
Blazers goaltender Dylan Ferguson, from Lantzville, signed recently to a three-year NHL entry-level contract by the expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights, showed why by making 35 saves in a valiant outing.
Griffen Outhouse, named WHL goaltender of the opening week of the regular season, was also harried in making 38 saves for Victoria as the Blazers made the Royals work for the victory.
It was classic head coach Don Hay hockey played by the underdogs.
鈥淟ots of credit to Kamloops. They executed and were well coached and very prepared,鈥� said Royals bench-boss Price.
The Royals and Blazers meet again in a matin茅e today at 3 p.m. in the Memorial Centre.
ICE CHIPS: It was a homecoming for the Blazers鈥� triumvirate of Island players 鈥� Lantville鈥檚 Ferguson and defencemen Sean Strange from Saanich and Nolan Kneen from Duncan.
