VICTORIA 6
VANCOUVER 1
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The Vancouver Giants are probably happy to see the last of the Victoria Royals, at least for this weekend, and one goaltender in particular.
Mind you, there are eight more Western Hockey League meetings to contemplate for Vancouver against the Royals and their standout goalie Griffen Outhouse in this currently one-sided cross-strait rivalry.
The Royals outscored the Giants 13-2 in sweeping the opening weekend of the WHL season. Victoria defeated Vancouver 6-1 Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre, to follow up the season-opening 7-1 win over the Giants on Friday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The result in Langley ruined the occasion in the Giants鈥� home opener for 3,317 fans. The Royals, again vulture-like in their opportunism, were only too happy to oblige by scoring two power-plays goals while holding the Giants鈥� odd-man to 0-5.
Vancouver outshot Victoria for the second consecutive night, this time 47-30, but Royals creaseman Outhouse was again sturdy against the barrage.
鈥淲e kept a lot of those [Giants] shots from the outside,鈥� said Royal head coach Dan Price.
That said, he gave Outhouse his due for another noteworthy performance, and said there were many things that need to be cleaned up in front of him.
鈥淚t was a penalty-filled game with a lot of special-teams situations, and lots of chances for both sides,鈥� said Price.
鈥淚t was a bit of a track meet . . . more than coaches would like to see.鈥�
Dante Hannoun, the undersized but explosive 19-year-old veteran forward, led Victoria with his first two goals of the season on a three-point night.
鈥淒ante has been going great all through training camp and the pre-season and creating chances. It鈥檚 nice to see him being rewarded for that,鈥� said Price.
Ryan Peckford scored his third goal of the season and Belarus U-18 player Igor Martynov his second on the year. Scoring accounts were opened on the season by Jared Legien and defenceman Jared Freadrich. James Malm scored Vancouver鈥檚 goal.
Outhouse, Hannoun and Malm were named the game's three stars.
The Royals were missing two of their three allowable 20-year-olds. Forward Tyler Soy (Anaheim Ducks) and defenceman Chaz Reddekopp (Los Angeles Kings) are still in NHL training camps.
The Royals and Giants meet each other more than any other teams. The Giants have missed the playoffs the past three seasons and four of the last five, which has considerably diminished what was supposed to be the Royals' greatest rivalry. But it has had its benefits as a source of soft points in recent seasons for the Royals, who went 8-1-1 against Vancouver last season for 17 of a possible 20 points. The Royals are four-for-four in points in the rivalry so far this season.
There鈥檚 a change of scenery, in terms of rivals, next Saturday and Sunday, when Victoria hosts the Kamloops Blazers at the Memorial Centre.
