The form chart for the WHL Western Conference was given an early twist, mostly by the upstart Victoria Royals鈥� 7-1 start, but now seems to be unfolding as expected.
The defending WHL-champion Kelowna Rockets and ascendant Seattle Thunderbirds look to be the teams to beat, with the other eight teams scrapping it out every night for every point.
The Royals (7-4) have fallen back to earth from their moon-shot start with three consecutive losses.
鈥淲hat we鈥檝e seen is that Seattle may have a special group, but any team can beat any other team on any given night in this conference,鈥� said Victoria GM Cam Hope.
鈥淓ven our last three games, we could have won them all, except for a bad bounce or a bad break in each one.鈥�
Case-in-point was Wednesday night鈥檚 3-2 Royals loss in Kamloops on a Blazers goal with just 32 seconds remaining in regulation time that blew a chance of even gaining a point in overtime or shootout.
鈥淭here are going to be stretches over a season such as this in which you lose a series of games and win a series of games,鈥� said Hope.
Royals head coach Dave Lowry concurred.
鈥淧arity is a factor in this league,鈥� he said.
鈥淓ven over the last three games, we gave ourselves chances to win. We just made a critical mistake or two in each that cost us those games. But we will grow and learn from that.鈥�
That journey of growth for the young Royals continues tonight and Saturday in Spokane against the Chiefs (3-5-2), who have had their own struggles of late by going winless in their last six games at 0-4-2. Spokane has been outscored 16-8 in its last three outings, which have all been at home.
There was a sliver of a silver lining on Wednesday night when the Chiefs took one of the best teams in the WHL 鈥� the Brandon Wheat Kings (7-1-2) 鈥� to a shootout in a 4-3 loss.
In an effort to infuse some veteran stability up front, the Chiefs have added former Royal and 20-year-old forward Luke Harrison to their roster but had to release 20-year-old, three-season veteran Chiefs goaltender Garret Hughson to do so.
The Spokane two-game set closes out a four-game road swing for Victoria. The Royals are in the midst of a stretch in which they play 10 of 11 games away from Blanshard Street. The home outlier is Tuesday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre against the Lethbridge Hurricanes. The next morning, the Royals embark on a kilometre-chewing six-game trip through Saskatchewan and Manitoba that begins next Friday in Prince Albert.
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