The Victoria Royals earned their first win of the preseason Sunday with a 4-1 victory over the Kelowna Rockets in Delta. The Royals fell 3-2 in overtime Saturday to the Blazers.
“Saturday (vs Kamloops) we played hard and were in control of the hockey game and had opportunities to put the game away and we didn’t do it.”
Said Head Coach Dave Lowry,
“Today (vs Kelowna) we took advantage of our opportunities, the power play scored a few goals and offered us a little more space.”
Sunday, Axel Blomqvist made some noise in his return to the Royals line up coming off the 4 Nations U20 Tournament in Sweden, with a goal and an assist.
“Blomqvist scored early for us and allowed us to settle in…when he wants to play, he’s a pretty efficient player.”
16 year old forward Jared Dmytriw and returning forward Braden Oleksyn also chipped in with a goal and assist each. Joe Hicketts tallied the other marker for the Royals.
Victoria did dress a few more veterans this weekend, however will lose 6 players to NHL camps this coming week.
Brandon Magee, Austin Carroll and Keegan Kanzig to Penticton for the Young Stars Classic on behalf of Calgary, along with Axel Blomqvist for Winnipeg. Travis Brown to Ottawa’s camp in London, Joe Hicketts to the Traverse City Prospects Tournament on behalf of Detroit.
“We did put a couple older guys in, and as guys become available guys are going to start going into the line up.”
Victoria scratched 20-year-olds Brandon Magee, and Austin Carroll along with regulars Keegan Kanzig, Ryan Gagnon, Jack Palmer and Coleman Vollrath.
Victoria held period leads of 1-0 and 4-0.
It was a penalty filled affair, and the Royals took advantage of their power plays going 3 for 12, while stopping all 4 Rockets man advantages.
“Our power play kept it simple, and the two previous games we were not very good, we didn’t generate a lot of chances, didn’t win any second chance battles.”
Between the pipes, Evan Smith and Michael Herringer split the duties. Smith faced the majority of the rubber stopping all 17 pucks he faced. Herringer came in mid way through and blocked 9 of 10.
At the other end Jackson Whistle allowed 4 goals on 27 shots.
Victoria’s only home exhibition game is this Thursday against Vancouver at the SOFMC with the puck drop at 5pm. Tickets are $5 with partial proceeds going to charity.
“I think we saw a lot of positives, we still have a lot of work to do.”
Said Lowry on the clubs progression over the preseason.
“We still have a lot of new young faces in the line up and they have to understand that we play a certain way and our expectation is that they play that way.”
- Marlon Martens
PRESEASON SCHEDULE (REMAINING GAMES)
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Vancouver @ Victoria
Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre - Victoria, BC
5:05 p.m.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Victoria @ Kelowna
Prospera Place - Kelowna, BC
7:05 p.m
Victoria Royals 4 at Kelowna Rockets 1 - Status: Final
Sunday, September 7, 2014 - Sungod Arena - Delta, BC
BOX SCORE:
Victoria 1 3 0 - 4
Kelowna 0 0 1 - 1
1st Period-
1, Victoria, Blomqvist 1 (Soy), 1:41.
Penalties-Chartier Kel (hooking), 9:12; Brown Vic (holding), 10:40; Yorke Kel (holding), 11:08; Kirkland Kel (interference), 17:38; Crunk Vic (slashing, 10-minute misconduct), 18:31; Dmytriw Vic (roughing), 18:31; Goulbourne Kel (10-minute misconduct), 18:31; Lees Kel (roughing), 18:31; Soustal Kel (unsportsmanlike cnd.), 20:00.
2nd Period-
2, Victoria, Dmytriw 2 (Hannoun, Blomqvist), 0:42 (PP).
3, Victoria, Hicketts 1 (Oleksyn, Nagy), 1:50 (PP).
4, Victoria, Oleksyn 1 (Walker, Dmytriw), 18:02 (PP).
Penalties-Stephens Kel (tripping), 0:42; Walker Vic (tripping), 2:17; Brown Vic (interference), 3:15; Lees Kel (slashing), 3:52; Baillie Kel (roughing), 8:05; Martin Kel (slashing), 8:54; Fushimi Vic (roughing), 9:52; Yorke Kel (roughing), 9:52; Stadel Kel (holding), 11:04; Chadi Kel (checking to the head), 17:13.
3rd Period-
5, Kelowna, Linaker 2 (Coughlin), 12:23.
Penalties-Martin Kel (high sticking), 3:21; Fisher Vic (roughing), 8:51; Martin Kel (roughing), 8:51.
Shots on Goal-
Victoria 9-6-12-27.
Kelowna 9-11-7-27.
Power Play Opportunities-
Victoria 3 / 12;
Kelowna 0 / 4.
Goalies-
Victoria, Smith 1-0-1-0 (17 shots-17 saves); Herringer 0-2-0-0 (10 shots-9 saves). Kelowna, Whistle 1-1-0-0 (27 shots-23 saves).
A-0
Referees-Mike Campbell (89), Adam Griffiths (36).
Linesmen-Jacob Hill (122), Michael Labbe.
ROYALS TOP ROCKETS
Victoria scores three powerplay goals in 4-1 win.
For Immediate Release
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Delta, BC- The Victoria Royals beat the Kelowna Rockets 4-1 on Sunday afternoon in the teams’ final game of the North Delta WHL Pre-Season Invitational.
For the second consecutive game the Royals’ had a mixture of rookies (8) and veterans (12) in the lineup. Rookie goaltender Evan Smith (1997) made his second start of the pre-season for Victoria with fellow rookie Michael Herringer (1996) replacing him midway through the second period.
The Royals led 1-0 thru one period of play on Axel Blomqvist’s first goal of the WHL pre-season. Victoria then added 3 powerplay goals in the middle frame for a 4-0 lead. Rookie forward Jared Dmytriw (1998) scored the winning goal while defender Joe Hicketts and winger Braden Oleksyn had the other markers. Kelowna’s lone goal came in the third period from forward Cole Linaker.
Evan Smith turned away all 17 shots he faced, while Herringer stopped eight of nine shots for the Royals. Rockets’ netminder Jackson Whistle made 23 saves on 27 shots.
A chippy contest saw Victoria go 3/12=25.0% with the man advantage while Kelowna went 0/4=0.0%.
Victoria scratched 20-year-olds Brandon Magee, and Austin Carroll along with regulars Keegan Kanzig, Ryan Gagnon, Jack Palmer and Coleman Vollrath.
The Royals now return home to continue their pre-season schedule with a match-up against the Vancouver Giants on Thursday, September 11th. Puck drop is at 5:05 p.m. at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, with tickets costing $5 and partial proceeds going to charity. Tickets can be ordered at www.selectyourtickets.com, by calling 250-220-7777 or at the box-office.
Single game tickets for the 2014-15 season go on sale September 12th with a special pre-buy offer available during Thursday night’s exhibition game! Call 250-220-7889, visit www.victoriaroyals.com, or head down to the Victoria Royals ticketing office at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre to pick up your seats and guarantee your spot at the September 26th home opener.
Play By Play Voice of the Victoria Royals on The Zone @ 91.3 FM
