KAMLOOPS 3
VICTORIA 1
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It must be getting close to money time.
The Kamloops Blazers defeated the Victoria Royals 3-1 in a testy Western Hockey League game before 5,853 fans Saturday night at Save on Foods Memorial Centre.
鈥淚t was a [sa国际传媒] division game and the emotions can get high,鈥� said Victoria forward Dante Hannoun.
鈥淲e have to battle through that and stick to the game plan.鈥�
Victoria (31-22-4) leads the eight-game season series against Kamloops 4-2. But it was the Blazers (34-18-6) who had the last laugh on this night.
鈥淚t was a hard-fought game,鈥� said Royals coach Dave Lowry.
Victoria forward Tyler Soy was hurt in the first period and did not return to the game. That halted the Anaheim Duck draft pick鈥檚 points streak at 12 games with eight goals and 13 assists for 21 points in that stretch.
Jared Dmytriw of the Royals took a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct in the third period for a hit to the head on Kamloops鈥� Deven Sideroff.
The league will likely look at that to decide if further action is warranted.
The game also further emphasized the Blazers have something of which the Royals can鈥檛 remotely boast 鈥� goaltending depth. First-star Dylan Ferguson, in his 26nd appearance of the season, was solid in making 36 saves for the victory.
The Blazers鈥� other goaltender is Connor Ingram, the 2017 world junior championships silver-medallist with sa国际传媒, who has made 34 appearances.
Victoria workhorse Griffen Outhouse was also good Saturday in making 33 saves in his 52nd appearance of the season.
鈥淲e had a good push and got a lot of pucks to the net, but we didn鈥檛 get the second chances,鈥� said Royals captain Ryan Gagnon.
Lowry also rued the missed opportunities: 鈥淲e generated enough chances to win the game.鈥�
Added Hannoun: 鈥淲e need to get more bodies to the net and bear down on second chances.鈥�
Meanwhile, some old habits are hard to drop. An historic Royals problem through six seasons 鈥� dispiriting goals allowed late in periods 鈥� came back to haunt as the Blazers scored power-play counters by Sideroff and captain Colin Shirley in the final minute in both the first and second periods.
Rudolfs Balcers, who played for Latvia in the 2017 world juniors, put it away for Kamloops with a late third-period goal for his 31st of the season.
Carter Folk, a Royals鈥� 20-year-old over-ager, set up rookie Eric Florchuk for a tap-in to account for the Royals goal in the second period.
ICE CHIPS: . . . The Royals begin a three-game road swing through the Eastern Conference beginning Wednesday in Medicine Hat followed by Friday in Lethbridge and Saturday in Kootenay . . . The Blazers feature sophomore defenceman Nolan Kneen from Duncan . . . Since relocating to the Island in 2011-12, the Royals are 26-18-2 against the Blazers, including 15-6-2 on Blanshard Street.
