The Seattle Thunderbirds (11-9-1-1) swing into the Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena tonight to kickoff a pair of games versus the Victoria Royals (16-8-1-0) in what should be a hard-fought contest. In recent trips north, Seattle rolled over the Royals on their way to Western Hockey League Championship last year. The Royals have not beat the T-Birds at home since March 2nd 2015, when Greg Chase scored on Seattle netminder Taran Kozun in a shoot-out for the victory.
The Royals will be looking to rebound from possibly their worst ever home loss, a 10-4 shellacking at the hands of the Lethbridge Hurricanes. The Royals spent a lot of time in practice this week, working on fundamentals as head coach Dan Price told Cleeve Dheenshaw of the @timescolonist “It’s about correcting bad habits and you do that in practices. With good habits, come good fundamentals.”
The Thunderbirds are a much different team than that championship one of last year, but no push-over. Gone from the team are talents Matthew Barzal to the NHL (New York Islanders), Ryan Gropp, Ethan Bear, Alexander True, Scott Eansor and Keegan Kolesar all to the AHL. Also departing was head coach Steve Konowalchuk, who like the former Royals coach Dave Lowry, took an assistant coaching role this year with the Los Angeles Kings. 20 year-old Defenseman Austin Strand leads the way for Seattle this season in points with 25 points (10g, 15a) in 23 games.
For the Royals, Griffen Outhouse will look to bounce back after being pulled midway through the second period versus the Hurricanes after allowing four goals on 19 shots. Victoria will also likely come out flying, trying to get an early lead as they are 8-1-0 when leading after one period. The Royal were burned for six powerplay goals against on Tuesday, so discipline and staying out of the box is an obvious key versus Seattle. Finally, Tyler Soy sits one point behind Brandon Magee’s all-time franchise point record for career points (264 points) and looks to hopefully take the record this weekend. Soy told Cleeve Dheenshaw on the possibility of breaking the record “It’s a cool feeling because it’s not every day you get to break a franchise record.”
The Royals also announced that tonight’s game will be Downie Wenjack Fund Night. In attendance will be Mike Downie, the Co-Founder of the Downie & Wenjack Fund as well as the co-creator of the graphic novel and film, The Secret Path. Downie, along with his late brother Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip and artist Jeff Lemire, created the graphic novel and film to tell the story of Chanie Wenjack, an Ojibway boy who died while running away from his residential school in October of 1966. A selection of team merchandise will be on sale with 100% of the proceeds going to the fund.
Tonight we will have Mike Downie, the Co-Founder of the Downie & Wenjack Fund in attendance for @downiewenjack Night!
Tickets: https://t.co/pj2U1DLy7B pic.twitter.com/gpnumJ8HWY
— Victoria Royals (@victoriaroyals) November 24, 2017
Puck drops at 7:05pm in what should be a great night of hockey in Victoria.
