Royals secure a key victory
Can he have some more please? Oliver is more than just the 1968 Oscar winner for best film. It’s also a player who is turning into a key cog for the Victoria Royals of the Western Hockey League.
Kaid Oliver, in a breakout season, scored twice as the Victoria Royals defeated the Brandon Wheat Kings 3-1 in Western Hockey League action Saturday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. Defenceman Ralph Jarratt sealed it with an empty-net goal.
Victoria is ranked seventh, dropping three spots after two consecutive losses to the Kelowna Rockets last weekend, in this week’s Canadian Hockey League top-10 poll.
The Royals are 9-3 and were playing a very good Wheat Kings team that is 6-3-4, but with a record that could be much better, if not for being luckless after regulation with three overtime losses and one shootout defeat.
The Royals went into the game hobbled, especially up front. Missing were injured forwards Dante Hannoun, the veteran 20-year-old through whom much of Victoria’s offence flows, Phillip Schultz, who will represent Denmark in the 2019 world junior championship upcoming in Victoria and Vancouver, and Logan Doust.
A big plus for Victoria was the return of 20-year-old veteran goaltender Griffen Outhouse after three games out and he was instrumental.
Brandon’s top line of NHL thirdround Carolina Hurricanes draft pick Stelio Mattheos, the first overall selection in the 2014 WHL bantam draft, Cole Reinhardt and Surrey product Luka Burzan presented the Royals with a match-up challenge. Mattheos opened scoring on the power play in the first period.
The match-up featured the teams at the westernmost and easternmost cities in the WHL.
Victoria concluded its six-game homestand at 3-3.
The Royals will cross the border and embark down I-5 for a pair of games against the annual powerhouse Portland Winterhawks on Friday at the Moda Center and next Saturday in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The Star Spangled theme continues when the Royals return home to meet the Spokane Chiefs on Nov. 9-10 on Blanshard.
The Portland-Spokane games will be telling in that they are Victoria’s first this season against teams in the U.S. Division, considered the stronger of the two divisions (including the B.C. Division) which comprise the WHL’s Western Conference.