WHL Victoria Royals

Palmer Earns First Career Shutout in Win against Giants

Published on December 30, 2021 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Victoria Royals News Release


Victoria, BC - Tyler Palmer and the Victoria Royals defeated the Vancouver Giants tonight in a 3-0 win on home ice. The teams were back at it tonight for their second of three games against one another.

The Royals (11-13-4) were still missing eleven players but gained three skaters in Matthew Hodson, Wyatt Wilson and Alex Edwards. This was Hodson's first game since suffering a season ending injury in February of 2020, while Wilson is returning from a three-game suspension. Edwards joined the team as an affiliate player who was signed to a Standard Player Agreement earlier in the day.

It was a special night for Hodson who scored the first goal of his WHL career earning the 18-year-old the third star of the night.

"It's been a long time, so to be able to come back and contribute is amazing. I can't wait to keep doing it," Hodson said.

Similar to Monday evening, the Giants (14-15-0) got off to a head start in the first period outshooting the royals 19-5. Luckily for Victoria, Palmer was looking solid in net making some key saves to keep the game scoreless. The Royals had a chance to get the first goal on the power play when Zack Ostapchuck took a penalty for Vancouver for interference. However, the Royals were unable to score on former Victoria netminder Connor Martin. The first period ended with no score after 20 minutes.

The second period started off looking more balanced between the two teams when Hodson got the goal with assists from Carter Briltz and Igor Zborvoskiy to put Victoria up 1-0. The Royals were picking up the pace applying consistent pressure to the Giants zone. With under four minutes to go, Bailey Peach who has scored four goals in his last three games, scored an incredible lacrosse style goal with assists from Brayden Schuurman and Devin Aubin to make it a 2-0 game.

At the end of the second, the Giants were up to 32 shots, double that of the Royals, but were unable to get anything past netminder Palmer. The Fernie native continued to make spectacular saves to keep Vancouver off the board.

The Giants came out in the third desperate to get a shot by Palmer but were stonewalled through 50 minutes of play. Peach took a penalty for tripping at 9:11 which gave the Giants the chance they were looking for, but they were unable to create any offensive moves.

With 5:27 to go, Ostapchuck took a penalty and a game misconduct for a check to the head of Gannon Laroque while Peach took a penalty for high sticking to make it a four-on-four game for two minutes. With the game misconduct, the Royals were on the power play for the final three minutes of the game. In an effort to get on the board, the Giants pulled Martin with two minutes to go for the extra attacker. However, the Royals capitalized when Peach scored his second of the night on an empty with an assist from Schuurman to end the game 3-0.

It was an uneven night in the shots column with the Giants netminder Martin facing 21 shots on goal while Palmer stopped 50 shots on goal for the shutout.

For his exceptional display of athleticism, Palmer earned his first career shutout and the first star of the game while Peach took home the second star for scoring the second and third goals of the game.

GM and Head Coach Dan Price was happy with the win tonight and the exceptional play by Palmer, but knows there's still work to be done.

"Tonight, I think we were opportunistic and obviously our goaltending was exceptional. We did some good things in the game tonight, especially in the second and third. The game was more even after the first, but there were way too many shots and we need to close those lanes in the future," he said.

The two teams have one more game tomorrow when for the Royals Go Green: Recylcing Game presented by Dunder Mifflin.

The Royals are also offering two holiday ticket packages for fans this season. Buy four vouchers for $70 or six for $100 and receive a special Royals gift. This offer is valid until December 31, 2021.

Follow the Royals on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok and visit our website to find out more about ticket sales and the latest news on the team.

Check out the Victoria Royals Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Western Hockey League Stories from December 30, 2021


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central