Friday 6 February 2015

Preview: Red Deer at Victoria, Saturday Feb.7th, 2015

The Victoria Royals (28-20-3-1,60pts) are back in action Saturday night as they entertain the 2016 Memorial Cup hosts, the Red Deer Rebels (28-16-3-5, 64pts).

Pregame show on The Zone @ 91.3fm at 6:40, with puck drop at 7.  Online: www.thezone.fm/whl

Royals are looking to extend their two game win streak after being idle since last Saturday when the edged the Americans in Tri City 3-2 in shoot out.  They won 3-0 in Spokane one night earlier.

Victoria and Red Deer are 2nd place in their divisions, and 4th in their respective Conferences.

The Rebels wrap up a 3 game in 4 night BC Division road trip looking to get back into the win column after a 5-4 loss against the Giants Friday night.  They began the trip with a 3-2 win in Kamloops ending a winless in 3 slide.

In two visits to Red Deer earlier this season Victoria edged the Rebels 6-5 in overtime in October, and 2-1 in a shootout January 16th. In the last eight meetings, six of them have been decided by one goal with four of those contests going to a shootout. The Royals have a record of 4-2-0-2 in the eight games versus the Rebels.

Victoria has 8 wins in their past 10 (8-1-1-0), while Red Deer has 5 (5-2-0-3) but were recently given honourable mention in the CHL Top 10.

The Royals are 9 over .500 at home, while the Rebels are strong on the road with a 4 over .500 record.

Victoria owns the 7th best power play, while Red Deer has the 2nd best penalty killing in the league.

Royals netminder Coleman Vollrath was nominated for the Vaughn CHL Goaltender of the Week award. Vollrath registered a 0.96 goals against average and a .962 save percentage, including one shutout, in two starts during the past week.

Forward Austin Carroll will be playing in his 250th career regular season game in the WHL. In 249 games, all as a member of the Royals, Carroll has collected 178 points (85g-93a) and 439 minutes in penalties.

At the trade deadline the Rebels added their current leading scorer, Connor Gay from the Regina Pats, sent defenseman Kolton Dixon to Sasktoon for netminer Trevor Martin, acquired bantam picks from Tri City for forward Tyler Sandhu, and in December swapped a pair of defenseman with Spokane, Nick Charif for Colton Bobyk with picks going both ways.

The Rebels have five skaters rated by NHL Central Scouting for the 2015 draft.  Forward Adam Musil who won gold with Tyler Soy at the U18’s this summer is rated 32nd,  F Austin Strand is 66th, F Grayson Pawlenchuk 93rd, and netminder Taz Burman is 12th among goaltenders.

The Royals Tyler Soy is 152nd, while defenseman Chaz Reddekopp is 199th.

Red Deer NHL Drafted Players: Conner Bleackley (1st rd COL ’14), Hayden Fleury (1st rd CAR ’14), Nelson Nogier (4th rd WPG, 14).  Polei (F/A STL), Doetzel (F/A TOR), Johnson (F/A ANH).

Monday afternoon Victoria entertains Edmonton at 2:05 p.m. with Kirby’s Source for Sports’ Skate with the players taking place afterwards.

- Marlon Martens

Summary
  
Description
Result
Head to Head Record 2014-15 Regular SeasonVictoria 2-0-0-0Red Deer 0-0-1-1
Head to Head Record 2013-14 Regular SeasonVictoria 1-1-0-0Red Deer 1-1-0-0
Last 5 Years record between teamsVictoria 4-4-0-2Red Deer 6-1-1-2
Victoria vs. Red Deer Last 5 Years record at VictoriaVictoria 2-3-0-0Red Deer 3-1-0-1
Victoria vs. Red Deer Last 5 Years record at Red DeerVictoria 2-1-0-2Red Deer 3-0-1-1
Previous Meetings This SeasonVictoria 2 @ Red Deer 1 (Jan 16 2015) Final SO
Victoria 6 @ Red Deer 5 (Oct 14 2014) Final OT

How the 2 teams match up
   
 
Red Deer
Victoria
Team Record28-16-3-5 -- 64 points28-20-3-1 -- 60 points
Division Ranking2nd Central2nd B.C.
Conference Ranking4th Eastern4th Western
League Ranking7th9th
Past 10 Games5-2-0-38-1-1-0
Streak0-1-0-02-0-0-0
Last Game5-4 L @ Vancouver (Feb 6 2015) Final3-2 W @ Tri-City (Jan 31 2015) Final SO
Home Record15-7-1-416-7-3-0
Away Record13-9-2-112-13-0-1
GF183 178 
GA169 160 
PP (Overall)(36/195) 18.5(50/223) 22.4
PP (Home)(22/112) 19.6(29/104) 27.9
PP (Away)(14/83) 16.9(21/119) 17.6
PK (Overall)(28/191) 85.3(44/216) 79.6
PK (Home)(12/91) 86.8(17/102) 83.3
PK (Away)(16/100) 84.0(27/114) 76.3
Leading RookieStrand (4-9-13)Nagy (5-6-11)
Most PIMPolei - 67Carroll - 93
Team PIM/GM13.6/Game14.3/Game
Leading ScorersGay (22-32-54)Carroll (28-31-59)
 Sheen (16-34-50)Brown (16-31-47)
 Bleackley (27-22-49)Hicketts (9-38-47)
 Johnson (21-21-42)Soy (17-27-44)
 Cote (7-31-38)Chase (15-29-44)
Last 5 Games5-4 L @ Vancouver (Feb 6 2015) Final3-2 W @ Tri-City (Jan 31 2015) Final SO
 3-2 W @ Kamloops (Feb 4 2015) Final3-0 W @ Spokane (Jan 30 2015) Final
 6-5 L vs Prince Albert (Jan 31 2015) Final SO4-3 L @ Portland (Jan 28 2015) Final
 4-0 L vs Edmonton (Jan 30 2015) Final6-0 W vs Kamloops (Jan 24 2015) Final
 4-3 L vs Kelowna (Jan 27 2015) Final SO4-3 L vs Kamloops (Jan 23 2015) Final OT
Leading After 1st13-3-1-214-3-0-0
Leading After 2nd19-3-2-018-1-0-0
Tied After 1st10-2-1-28-6-0-1
Tied After 2nd6-1-1-26-3-2-0
Trailing After 1st5-11-1-16-11-3-0
Trailing After 2nd3-12-0-34-16-1-1
Out Shooting Opponents15-7-1-416-6-1-0
Out Shot by Opponents12-9-2-111-13-2-1
1-Goal Games9-2-3-511-7-3-1
2-Goal Games7-5-0-05-6-0-0
3-Goal Games5-3-0-05-3-0-0