Friday 29 November 2013

Preview: Victoria at Tri City, Friday Nov. 29th, 2013

The Victoria Royals (17-10-0-1, 35 pts) begin a two game US road swing against the Tri-City Americans (14-11-1-2, 31pts) Friday night.

Victoria looks to extend their franchise best 5 game road winning streak while sporting an 8-3 record away from home this season.

It’s the third meeting of the season with the home team victorious both times.  The Royals fell 4-2 in Washington against the Americans on October 18th, but beat them 2-1 on the Island October 6th.

The Royals are 4 points up on the 6th place Americans in the West, tied for 4th with the Chiefs with 35 points.

Victoria has won 7 of 8, and are riding a 4 game win streak.  Tri City is winless in 2, (0-1-1-0), but have won 6 in their last 10 (6-3-1-0).

Most recently, the Americans fell to the Chiefs 4-3 in overtime Saturday night at the Spokane.  Eric Comrie, a Winnipeg Jets draft pick, got the start for the Americans after getting the last two games off making 41 saves on the night.  Comrie fell 3-2 for Team WHL at the Super Series on Wednesday.

The Royals swept the Blazers at home last weekend, by 6-1 and 5-0 scores.  They beat Kamloops 3 times last week, and won once in Kelowna.

Netminder Patrik Polivka was named CHL Goaltender of The Week after posting a 4-0 record, 0.75 goals against average and 0.977 save percentage.  Polivka becomes the first goaltender in Victoria Royals team history to receive the award.  He was the number one star in each of the clubs 4 wins. 

During the the 4 game win streak, Victoria has only allowed 3 goals against while scoring 17.  The Royals power play has struck 7 times over the streak on 16 opportunities (43.75%).

Victoria is now 13-0 when scoring the first goal of the game, and 12-0 when leading after 40 minutes.  They own the leagues #1 penalty kill, while allowing the fewest goals against on average per game.

Tri-City Americans defenseman Michal Plutnar was invited to the Czech Republic’s training camp for the upcoming World Junior Championship in Sweden.

19-year-old defenseman Justin Hamonic will serve as the team’s interim captain, until current team captain Mitch Topping returns from injury.

Tri-City made a trade this week acquired 19 year old defenseman Jeff Hubic from the Kootenay Ice in exchange for a 7th round pick in the 2014 Bantam Draft.

Victoria is without 20 year old defenseman Jordan Fransoo (upper, 4 weeks), and still without Joe Hicketts (upper, indefinite) and Jack Walker (illness, day to day).

After Tri City Friday, Victoria plays at Seattle Saturday before returning home to face Kootenay and Vancouver for a pair.

-Marlon Martens
Victoria Royals vs Tri-City Americans: Head To Head Stats
Summary

Description
Result
Head to Head Record 2013-14 Regular Season Victoria 1-1-0-0Tri-City 1-1-0-0
Head to Head Record 2012-13 Regular Season Victoria 3-0-1-0Tri-City 1-2-0-1
Last 5 Years record between teams Victoria 9-8-1-0Tri-City 9-8-0-1
Victoria vs. Tri-City Last 5 Years record at Victoria Victoria 5-3-1-0Tri-City 4-5-0-0
Victoria vs. Tri-City Last 5 Years record at Tri-City Victoria 4-5-0-0Tri-City 5-3-0-1
Previous Meetings This Season Victoria 2 @ Tri-City 4 (Oct 18 2013) Final
Tri-City 1 @ Victoria 2 (Oct 6 2013) Final

How the 2 teams match up
Tri-City
Victoria
Team Record 14-11-1-2 -- 31 points 17-10-0-1 -- 35 points
Division Ranking 4th U.S. 2nd B.C.
Conference Ranking 6th Western 5th Western
League Ranking 10th 7th
Past 10 Games 6-3-1-0 8-2-0-0
Streak 0-1-1-0 4-0-0-0
Last Game 4-3 L @ Spokane (Nov 23 2013) Final OT 5-0 W vs Kamloops (Nov 23 2013) Final
Home Record 9-4-0-0 9-7-0-1
Away Record 5-7-1-2 8-3-0-0
GF 78  74 
GA 76  64 
PP (Overall) (23/109) 21.1 (25/124) 20.2
PP (Home) (10/50) 20.0 (15/77) 19.5
PP (Away) (13/59) 22.0 (10/47) 21.3
PK (Overall) (18/114) 84.2 (13/116) 88.8
PK (Home) (8/61) 86.9 (11/79) 86.1
PK (Away) (10/53) 81.1 (2/37) 94.6
Leading Rookie Purtill (2-2-4) Soy (8-6-14)
Most PIM Astles - 42 Carroll - 61
Team PIM/GM 14.0/Game 15.2/Game
Leading Scorers Williams (20-10-30) Nelson (11-16-27)
Rankin (9-17-26) Carroll (12-10-22)
Bowles (4-15-19) Magee (7-11-18)
Tot (8-9-17) Blomqvist (8-8-16)
Nickles (6-8-14) Cote (2-13-15)
Last 5 Games 4-3 L @ Spokane (Nov 23 2013) Final OT 5-0 W vs Kamloops (Nov 23 2013) Final
4-1 L vs Kelowna (Nov 22 2013) Final 6-1 W vs Kamloops (Nov 22 2013) Final
2-1 W vs Vancouver (Nov 19 2013) Final OT 4-1 W @ Kelowna (Nov 20 2013) Final
5-2 L @ Vancouver (Nov 16 2013) Final 2-1 W @ Kamloops (Nov 19 2013) Final
5-3 W vs Regina (Nov 15 2013) Final 3-1 L vs Seattle (Nov 16 2013) Final
Leading After 1st 9-1-1-0 9-0-0-0
Leading After 2nd 11-1-1-1 12-0-0-0
Tied After 1st 4-4-0-2 6-1-0-0
Tied After 2nd 3-2-0-0 3-0-0-1
Trailing After 1st 1-6-0-0 2-9-0-1
Trailing After 2nd 0-8-0-1 2-10-0-0
Out Shooting Opponents 8-2-0-1 5-5-0-1
Out Shot by Opponents 6-9-1-1 9-5-0-0
1-Goal Games 5-3-1-2 8-3-0-1
2-Goal Games 3-3-0-0 3-3-0-0
3-Goal Games 4-3-0-0 3-1-0-0