The Portland Winterhawks haven’t lost back-to-back games since November and they weren’t about to let that run end on a March midweek in Victoria.
The Winterhawks, the No. 6-ranked team in the CHL top-10 poll, defeated the Royals 5-2 in WHL action Wednesday night at the Memorial Centre. It avenged Victoria’s 5-3 upset victory on Tuesday that snapped Portland’s five-game winning streak. Despite the result, Victoria (16-33-6) won the three-game season set against Portland (37-14-5) 2-1 despite being 41 points behind the Winterhawks in the standings.
Six-foot-one Texan Cross Hanas showed why he is a second-round NHL draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings with two goals and two assists for the Winterhawks. The Royals got a goal from Brayden Schuurman, the 26th of the season for the player ranked 58th among North American skaters for the 2022 NHL draft, to make it 2-1 just 10 seconds into the second period and give Victoria hope.
But in a break from a season pattern of outstanding play, this wasn’t the night for Victoria’s goaltending. Starter Campbell Arnold was touched for two goals on 13 shots in the first period before going out with an injury. Tyler Palmer, the 47-save hero from Tuesday, started the second period and allowed three quick goals between 3:51 and 6:26 as Portland blew the game open.
Rookie Danish import Marcus Almquist scored his first WHL goal for Victoria, while Royals captain Tarun Fizer had two assists to finish the two-game set against Portland with six points.
Taylor Gauthier, signed this month to an NHL entry-level contract by the Pittsburgh Penguins, got his second consecutive start and made 27 saves for the winners, several of them timely in the first period.
Gauthier is 15-2 for the Winterhawks since the trade in December that brought him to Portland from Prince George.
Victoria’s beleaguered defence was without its one true standout, San Jose Sharks fourth-round draft pick Gannon Laroque, who went down hard in Tuesday’s win because of a penalized hit from behind by Portland’s Luke Schelter.
The team said Laroque is week-to-week. That’s not good news with so few weeks left. If Laroque’s absence is prolonged, it would greatly impact Victoria’s chances in what will be a desperate bid to make the playoffs over the final 13 games of the regular season.
The Royals were already without Swiss world junior player Keanu Derungs and 20-year-old Evan Patrician while leading scorer Bailey Peach went out of Wednesday’s game with a knock.
The Spokane Chiefs defeated the Vancouver Giants 5-2 to move into a tie for seventh place in the Western Conference with idle Prince George, two points behind the sixth-place Giants. Eight of the 10 teams make the playoffs with Victoria three points behind that final two spots currently held by Spokane and Prince George with the Chiefs holding one game and the Cougars two games in hand on the Royals.
The Royals’ season will likely come down to the seven games it has remaining against the Cougars, starting Friday and Saturday in Prince George.
