It’s not quite March Madness, but the Victoria Royals seem to at least found themselves some March Mojo. The Royals won their fourth consecutive Western Hockey League game Wednesday night with a 4-3 victory over the Kelowna Rockets at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The win was built on the 36-save goaltending of Campbell Arnold and a blazing performance by the line of Brayden Schuurman, Tanner Scott and Marcus Almquist.
Schuurman showed why he is the 58th-ranked North American skater for the 2022 NHL draft with his 27th and 28th goals of the season on a three-point night. Linemates Scott, with four assists, and Danish-import Almquist, with a goal and two assists, were also swarming the net all night.
“It was special,” said Schuurman.
Victoria captain Tarun Fizer had his seven-game points streak snapped but that wasn’t an issue with Schuurman, Scott and Almquist more than picking up the slack.
“That line created a lot of offence with its speed,” said Victoria GM and head coach Dan Price. “They were also strong on defence, which allowed them great opportunities in transition.”
Arnold responded in the crease following three consecutive and fine starts by Tyler Palmer.
“[Arnold] worked so hard and he was ready tonight,” said Price.
Caleb Willms also scored for Victoria. Nolan Flamand, on the power play, Jake Poole and Turner McMillen replied for the Rockets as Victoria held at bay for the second consecutive night the potent Kelowna trio of Chicago Blackhawks second-round draft pick Colton Dach, heralded 16-year-old rookie Andrew Cristall and Pavel Novak, a fifth-round pick of the Minnesota Wild who has twice represented the Czech Republic in the world junior championship, to sweep the two-game set on Blanshard.
Although the season series reads 9-3 from Kelowna’s perspective, from Victoria’s it is 3-5-4 with four of those Kelowna wins recorded in overtime or shootout.
The Royals (21-34-6), in seventh place in the Western Conference, moved five points ahead of the Spokane Chiefs and Prince George Cougars, in the battle for a playoff berth. Eight teams will advance to the conference post-season. The Cougars have four games in hand on the Royals and the Chiefs have two in hand on Victoria.
The fifth-place Rockets (34-18-6) are four points adrift of the fourth-place Seattle Thunderbirds and home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs.
The Royals have two more crucial games Friday and Saturday on Blanshard against Prince George.
