WHL Victoria Royals

Royals Clipped by Chiefs

Published on February 29, 2012 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Victoria Royals News Release


Victoria, BC - In a Tuesday night matchup at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, the Victoria Royals took on the Spokane Chiefs in the first game of a midweek doubleheader. Victoria gave Jared Rathjen the start in net, while Spokane countered with Mac Engel.

The Royals opened the game's scoring at 5:17 on Dakota Conroy's 10th marker of the season. After a strong cycle in the Chiefs' zone, Tim Traber fed Mike Forsyth alone in the slot for a one-timer that rebounded to Conroy, who made no mistake to notch the game's first goal. Spokane answered just after the halfway point of the period on a goal mouth scramble that saw Rathjen make two consecutive saves before Chiefs' forward Mitch Holmberg shoveled home the loose puck at 12:24. Spokane's Dylan Walchuk broke away on a partial break with under a minute left in the frame, only to be denied by the glove of Rathjen. After 20 minutes of play the game remained tied 1-1.

The physical play ramped up to start the second period as both teams exchanged several heavy hits. The action came to a head as Royals' defenseman Keegan Kanzig challenged Chiefs' captain Darren Kramer to his second tilt of the evening with five minutes left in the frame. Kanzig landed several blows before scoring the take down. Both goalies remained solid with Rathjen stopping all 13 shots while Engel turned aside 11. The teams headed to the second intermission tied 1-1.

Spokane broke the deadlock 1:30 into the third period when Collin Valcourt accepted a pass at the right faceoff circle and snapped a shot that beat Rathjen over the glove hand. Jamie Crooks answered for Victoria with his 33rd tally of the year as he let a shot go from the left half-boards that took a deflection off Chiefs' defenseman Jason Fram and beat Engel on the near post. Spokane took their second lead of the night at the 16:40 mark when, on a two-on-one break, Blake Gal redirected a Steven Kuhn pass through the legs of the Victoria netminder. Spokane would add an empty net goal by Corbin Baldwin late in the period to seal the game. Chiefs 4 Royals 2.

Victoria went 0/6 0.00% on the power play, while Spokane was 0/2 0.00%. The Chiefs outshot the Royals 33-28.

Victoria's next home game is tomorrow evening when they take on the Spokane Chiefs in the second half of a back to back series at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. Game time is at 7:05 p.m. For further details or to purchase your tickets today, visit the Victoria Royals Ticket Office, www.victoriaroyals.com, or call 250-220-7889.

Check out the Victoria Royals Statistics

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



Western Hockey League Stories from February 29, 2012


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