The Victoria Royals (22-41-3-4, 51 pts) entertain the Portland Winterhawks (48-17-3-1, 100 pts) for the final two regular season games Wednesday and Friday.
Pregame show both nights at 6:45 on The Zone at 91.3 FM.
PAST 10: Portland: 7-2-1-0 Victoria: 4-5-1-0
LAST GAME: Victoria is coming off a 5-4 overtime loss in Vancouver Sunday, Portland riding a two game win streak after an 11-3 win at Seattle Saturday.
PLAYOFF PICTURE: The Royals in 8th are fighting to clinch a playoff birth with 51 points and 2 games remaining. Seattle is 9th with 50 points and 3 games left. Prince George is 10th, with 48 points and 2 games left.
Any combination of points gained by Victoria or points dropped by Seattle totaling 6 will guarantee the Royals a playoff spot. (Example, Victoria wins 1, Seattle loses 2). The number is 2 points in respect to Prince George.
Portland in 3rd with 100 points is fighting for the title in the West and the League, 2 points back of top seed Tri City. Kamloops with 97 points has clinched the BC Division and therefore they will finish no lower than second in the conference.
SEASON SERIES: Victoria fell in Portland in their previous two meetings 7-6 Dec 30th, and 6-3 Dec 28th.
STATS: Victoria’s penalty kill has stopped 35 of 37 over their last 10 outings. Portland has scored the most goals for (4.58) and taken the most shots for (41.32) on average per game. Goal differential by period (+30, +25, +38). When the Winterhawks score the first goal, they are (35-5-2-1).
WHO TO WATCH: Portland’s Ty Rattie is 2nd in league scoring with 116 points, 3rd in goal (54), and tops in power play markers (26). Sven Bartschi who scored his first 2 NHL goals this week with Calgary, is 9th in scoring with 94 points, but is averaging exactly 2 points per game. Joseph Morrow is 2nd in defenseman scoring (64), top prospect Derrick Pouliot is 4th among defenseman in scoring (56).
LEADING SCORERS:
Rattie (54-62-116)
Bartschi (33-61-94)
Ross (42-40-82)
Morrow (17-47-64)
Leipsic (28-30-58)
Crooks (35-30-65)
Nelson (23-37-60)
Soudek (27-30-57)
Rintoul (17-34-51)
Magee (23-24-47)
DRAFTED/NHL SIGNED PLAYERS: For Victoria: D Tyler Stahl (Carolina, 6th rd 2010), D Jordan Fransoo (Ottawa, 7th rd 2011).
For Portland: F Ty Rattie (St. Louis 2nd rd ‘11), F Brad Ross (Tor 2nd rd ‘10), F Cam Reid (Nash ’09), F Marcel Noebels (PHI ’11), G Mac Carruth (Chi ’10), D Troy Rutkowski (Col ’10), D Joseph Morrow (Sign Pitt 1st rd 23rd overall ‘11), F Tyler Wotherspoon (Cgy 2nd rd ’11), F Sven Bartschi (1st rd 13th CGY ’11) and D William Wren (SJ ’09).
TOP PROSPECTS: Central Scoutings mid-term rankings of North American players positions Victoria’s Steven Hodges (55), and Logan Nelson (108). For Portland: D Josh Hanson (149), F Taylor Leir (117), D Derrick Pouliot (10).
INJURIES:
For Portland: None to report
For Victoria:
#3, Zach Habscheid, Lower body, 1 month
#25 Robin Soudek, Upper
SELL OUT!: Their game versus the Portland Winterhawks on March 14th is the Royals 6th sell-out of the season.
Friday’s game is quickly approaching a capacity crowd as well.
Only tickets to the first two home games of the playoffs will be made available at this time. The Royals’ single-game tickets for the 2012 WHL Playoffs are on sale at the Select Your Tickets box office, online at selectyourtickets.com or over the phone at (250)220-7777.
Group rates for playoff tickets are also available, starting as low as $10 per ticket.
With 2 home games left and a capacity of 7006, the Royals have an opportunity to eclipse the 200,000 mark in total attendance this season. So far 189,746 spectactors have taken in the Royals games at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
7th - EVERETT 52 Points REMAINING: (3)
Mar. 14 at Kelowna
Mar. 16 at Tri-City
Mar. 17 at Seattle
8th - VICTORIA 51 Points REMAINING: (2)
Mar 14 vs Portland
Mar 16 vs Portland
9th - SEATTLE 50 Points REMAINING: (3)
Mar. 16 at Spokane
Mar. 17 vs Everett
Mar. 18 at Portland
10th - PRINCE GEORGE 48 Points REMAINING: (2)
Mar. 16 at Kamloops
Mar. 17 vs Kamloops
If Victoria and Seattle end up tied in points, the league states:
c) In the event two Clubs are tied in points for the last playoff position, then these Clubs will play a sudden-death game in the home arena of the Club having won the most games in WHL standings. If the Clubs are tied in wins, (a) will be used to select the home site.
[Victoria has 22 wins thus far, Seattle 24]
[Victoria record vs Seattle (1-1-0-2) ]
a) In the event two Clubs finish tied in total points in WHL standings, the edge goes to the Club with the most victories. If that is a tie, it will go to the Club with the most points in games between the two Clubs during the regular schedule. If the two Clubs are still even, the edge goes to the Club with the highest ratio when taking goals for and subtracting goals against in regular season play. If it is still a tie, the edge will go to the Club with the highest ratio when taking goals for and subtracting goals against in games played between the two Clubs in regular schedule play.
Play By Play Voice of the Victoria Royals on The Zone @ 91.3 FM
