Pregame show on The Zone @ 91.3 fm at 6:40 or online at www.thezone.fm/whl
The Royals are tied for 5th with the Chiefs in the West, just one back of the Americans. They’ll face Spokane on Sunday.
The Royals have picked up 5 of 6 points from the Americans in the season series (2-0-1-0), most recently a 5-2 victory January 5th in Victoria. Tri City won the night earlier 3-2 in overtime. The Royals won 4-3 in shoot out in Kennewick back on October 6th.
Victoria and Tri City are riding 3 game win streaks, both winners of 7 of their last 10. The Americans had 5 days in between games coming into the contest.
The Royals are coming off a pair of 4-1 victories on back to back nights against the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Tuesday Jamie Crooks scored twice, and Ben Walker had a 3 point night to extend their franchise record home point streak to 12 games. Their power play struck twice while Patrik Polivka earned his 26th win.
It’s the teams 30th victory of the year and now just 3 wins and 10 points back from the franchise’s most successful season (33-31-4-4, 74pts) in 09-10.
Crooks had his 4th multi goal game of the year pulling into a tie for the teams goal scoring lead with Brandon Magee with 26 markers. The Walker brothers combined for 5 points.
Tri-City edged the host Seattle Thunderbirds 4-3 on Saturday as Justin Feser scored twice, including the winner 27 seconds into overtime. Malte Stromwall and Parker Bowles each had a goal and an assist for the Americans, while Luke Lee-Knight made 32 saves for the win.
Lee Knight has appeared in 12 straight (8-4) since Eric Comrie had season ending hip surgery. Feser leads the club in points with 72, 30 more than Stromwall who is 2nd in scoring.
Victoria is without Alex Gogolev (Lower, Undetermined), Logan Nelson (Lower, 2 weeks) and Luke Harrison (Upper, Indefinite).
After the two game swing through the US, the road trip continues with stops at Kootenay Wednesday, Red Deer Friday, Calgary Saturday and Edmonton Sunday.
-mm
| Previous Meetings This Season | Tri-City 2 @ Victoria 5 (Jan 5 2013) Final Tri-City 3 @ Victoria 2 (Jan 4 2013) Final OT Victoria 4 @ Tri-City 3 (Oct 6 2012) Final SO |
How the 2 teams match up
Tri-City
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Victoria
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| Team Record | 31-19-1-2 -- 65 points | 30-19-1-3 -- 64 points |
| Division Ranking | 2nd U.S. | 3rd B.C. |
| Conference Ranking | 4th Western | 6th Western |
| League Ranking | 7th | 9th |
| Past 10 Games | 7-3-0-0 | 7-2-0-1 |
| Streak | 3-0-0-0 | 3-0-0-0 |
| Last Game | 4-3 W @ Seattle (Feb 2 2013) Final OT | 4-1 W vs Seattle (Feb 6 2013) Final |
| Home Record | 13-10-0-2 | 19-5-1-2 |
| Away Record | 18-9-1-0 | 11-14-0-1 |
| GF | 174 | 174 |
| GA | 157 | 175 |
| PP (Overall) | (42/199) 21.1 | (56/254) 22.0 |
| PP (Home) | (25/101) 24.8 | (28/125) 22.4 |
| PP (Away) | (17/98) 17.3 | (28/129) 21.7 |
| PK (Overall) | (32/192) 83.3 | (49/237) 79.3 |
| PK (Home) | (20/83) 75.9 | (19/107) 82.2 |
| PK (Away) | (12/109) 89.0 | (30/130) 76.9 |
| Leading Rookie | Bowles (17-12-29) | Hicketts (2-17-19) |
| Most PIM | Mychan - 88 | Kanzig - 119 |
| Team PIM/GM | 13.3/Game | 19.4/Game |
| Leading Scorers | Feser (29-43-72) | Gogolev (20-45-65) |
| Strömwall (16-26-42) | Magee (26-23-49) | |
| Rankin (19-17-36) | Crooks (26-14-40) | |
| Bowles (17-12-29) | Walker (14-21-35) | |
| Topping (8-21-29) | Hodges (21-13-34) | |
| Last 5 Games | 4-3 W @ Seattle (Feb 2 2013) Final OT | 4-1 W vs Seattle (Feb 6 2013) Final |
| 2-1 W @ Everett (Feb 1 2013) Final SO | 4-1 W vs Seattle (Feb 5 2013) Final | |
| 5-2 W vs Prince George (Jan 30 2013) Final | 2-1 W @ Prince George (Feb 2 2013) Final SO | |
| 7-0 L vs Portland (Jan 26 2013) Final | 6-2 L @ Prince George (Feb 1 2013) Final | |
| 6-5 L vs Medicine Hat (Jan 25 2013) Final | 6-1 L @ Kelowna (Jan 31 2013) Final | |
| Leading After 1st | 17-4-0-1 | 15-4-0-1 |
| Leading After 2nd | 19-0-0-2 | 18-0-0-2 |
| Tied After 1st | 10-6-1-1 | 10-4-1-1 |
| Tied After 2nd | 6-5-1-0 | 2-1-1-0 |
| Trailing After 1st | 4-9-0-0 | 5-11-0-1 |
| Trailing After 2nd | 6-14-0-0 | 10-18-0-1 |
| Out Shooting Opponents | 15-7-0-2 | 11-4-0-1 |
| Out Shot by Opponents | 15-12-1-0 | 17-15-1-2 |
| 1-Goal Games | 14-6-1-2 | 14-2-1-3 |
| 2-Goal Games | 6-3-0-0 | 6-3-0-0 |
| 3-Goal Games | 6-7-0-0 | 5-8-0-0 |
