Thursday 21 February 2013

Preview: Kelowna at Victoria (Feb 22)

The Victoria Royals open a 6 game home stand by entertaining the Kelowna Rockets for a pair Friday and Saturday.

Pregame show at 6:40 PST on The Zone @ 91.3 fm or online at www.thezone.fm/whl

The Royals have a (1-4) record against the Rockets so far, winning by a 3-2 score on the Island October 13th.  Most recently falling in Kelowna by a 6-1 score January 31st.  After these two games they’ll meet one final time in the interior on March 6th.

Victoria returns to home ice after a 6 game road trip (2-3-0-1) picking up 5 points with a pair of wins against Tri City and Spokane, falling at Kootenay, picking up a point in a shoot out loss in Red Deer and falling against Calgary and Edmonton.

The Royals are now winless in 4 games. (0-3-0-1) after posting a 5 game win streak.  Victoria has points in 12 straight games on home ice, a franchise high.  The club is 14 games over .500 at the SOFMC this season (19-5-1-2).

With one more win, the team can tie the franchise record for most wins in a season, held by the Chilliwack Bruins (33-31-4-4, 74pts) in ’10-11.

The 6th place Royals are just 1 back of Spokane for 5th, and 2 back of Tri City for 4th in the West.  With a Cougars loss last Sunday, the Royals officially clinched a spot in the 2013 WHL Playoffs.

Kelowna is 2nd in the West, now only 3 points up on Kamloops who defeated the Rockets twice last weekend, 3-1 in Kelowna Saturday and 4-2 on the road the night before.

The Rockets who are ranked 6th in the CHL, have just 2 wins in their last 7 games after points in 19 consecutive, 17 of those victories. 


Kelowna owns the 2nd best power play, while scoring the 2nd most goals for in the WHL.  They’ve allowed the 3rd fewest shots against while giving up the 3rd fewest goals overall on average per game.

After the pair against Kelowna, Lethbridge visits Wednesday before a two game set next weekend versus Spokane.

Victoria Injuries:
#17 Alex Gogolev, F, lower body, 7 - 10 days
#28 Luke Harrison, F, upper body, indefinite
#16 Trent Lofthouse, F, upper body, 3 - 4 weeks
#33 Patrik Polivka, G, lower body, 3 - 5 days
#7 Tyler Stahl, D, lower body, 1 - 2 weeks

Returns
#23 Kolton Dixon, D, from injury
#19 Logan Nelson, F, from injury

Kelowna Injuries:
#20 Austin Glover, F, illness, day-to-day
#11 Carter Rigby, F, upper and lower body, indefinite
#6 Mitchell Wheaton, D, upper body, indefinite

Previous Meetings This Season Victoria 1 @ Kelowna 6 (Jan 31 2013) Final
Victoria 1 @ Kelowna 6 (Jan 9 2013) Final
Victoria 2 @ Kelowna 4 (Jan 2 2013) Final
Kelowna 2 @ Victoria 3 (Oct 13 2012) Final
Kelowna 4 @ Victoria 1 (Oct 12 2012) Final



How the 2 teams match up




Kelowna
Victoria
Team Record 42-15-3-1 -- 88 points 32-22-1-4 -- 69 points
Division Ranking 1st B.C. 3rd B.C.
Conference Ranking 2nd Western 6th Western
League Ranking 3rd 11th
Past 10 Games 5-5-0-0 5-4-0-1
Streak 0-2-0-0 0-3-0-1
Last Game 3-1 L vs Kamloops (Feb 16 2013) Final 5-2 L @ Edmonton (Feb 17 2013) Final
Home Record 25-5-0-0 19-5-1-2
Away Record 17-10-3-1 13-17-0-2
GF 258  189 
GA 156  196 
PP (Overall) (54/240) 22.5 (62/283) 21.9
PP (Home) (30/114) 26.3 (28/125) 22.4
PP (Away) (24/126) 19.0 (34/158) 21.5
PK (Overall) (47/287) 83.6 (54/266) 79.7
PK (Home) (13/128) 89.8 (19/107) 82.2
PK (Away) (34/159) 78.6 (35/159) 78.0
Leading Rookie Chartier (12-11-23) Hicketts (2-18-20)
Most PIM Goulbourne - 122 Carroll - 130
Team PIM/GM 15.7/Game 19.1/Game
Leading Scorers Bell (32-47-79) Gogolev (20-45-65)

Franko (21-42-63) Magee (28-26-54)

Sissons (24-35-59) Crooks (29-15-44)

McKinlay (20-36-56) Hodges (25-15-40)

Olsen (30-23-53) Walker (16-24-40)
Last 5 Games 3-1 L vs Kamloops (Feb 16 2013) Final 5-2 L @ Edmonton (Feb 17 2013) Final

4-2 L @ Kamloops (Feb 15 2013) Final 3-1 L @ Calgary (Feb 16 2013) Final

4-1 W vs Everett (Feb 14 2013) Final 2-1 L @ Red Deer (Feb 15 2013) Final SO

3-2 W @ Everett (Feb 10 2013) Final 5-1 L @ Kootenay (Feb 13 2013) Final

5-1 L vs Portland (Feb 9 2013) Final 5-3 W @ Spokane (Feb 10 2013) Final
Leading After 1st 32-3-1-0 16-5-0-1
Leading After 2nd 37-4-2-0 20-0-0-2
Tied After 1st 7-4-2-0 11-4-1-2
Tied After 2nd 2-1-0-0 2-1-1-1
Trailing After 1st 3-8-0-1 5-13-0-1
Trailing After 2nd 3-10-1-1 10-21-0-1
Out Shooting Opponents 31-5-1-1 12-6-0-2
Out Shot by Opponents 10-10-2-0 18-16-1-2
1-Goal Games 7-5-3-1 14-2-1-4
2-Goal Games 11-6-0-0 8-4-0-0
3-Goal Games 7-1-0-0 5-9-0-0