Recap | Mar. 20 | Wild (3) @ Royals (7)
Victoria, BC – In a mid-week matchup, the Victoria Royals (29-29-5-4) played host to the Wenatchee Wild (33-29-4-0) at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre for the first time in franchise history. While the game had plenty of storylines coming in, the main focus of the contest was playoff positioning. Heading into the contest, Wenatchee sat in fourth place, at 70 points, while the Royals sat in seventh place, with 65 points – just five points separated fourth and eighth place in the WHL’s Western Conference. The importance of the game will continue on Friday night as the two sides will meet again to close out the regular season.
In between the pipes, it was Braden Holt (20-16-4-3, 3.57 GAA, .895 save percentage) returning to the crease for the Royals following a night off on Saturday, while the Wild countered with Brendan Gee (16-11-1-0, 4.05 GAA, .874 save percentage).
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Reggie Newman made his return to the lineup for the Royals after missing the previous four games due to injury, the power forward was reunited with Tanner Scott and Casper Evensen Haugen. It was also a milestone night for veteran forward Dawson Pasternak who suited up in his 150th career WHL Game.
Victoria jumped out of the gates in the early going to grab the first lead of the contest, taking only 1 minute and 44 seconds to light the lamp at the SOFMC. Teydon Trembecky (10) earned the tally as the Royals took full advantage of a miscue behind the Wild net, which saw the puck bounce off the end board and roll off the stick of netminder Brendan Gee and into the hands of Escalus Burlock. From there, Burlock found Trembecky alone in front of the net, where he did the rest by slotting the puck into the yawning cage.
Shortly after the opening goal, Victoria found themselves short-handed as Reggie Newman sat for a four-minute boarding call. On the ensuing Wild man-advantage, Wenatchee would strike. Rodzers Bukarts (14) tallied with assistance from Karter Prosofsky and Jonas Woo in the latter half of the powerplay to pull the game level at one apiece.
Late in the period, Victoria’s powerplay unit would get their turn as Kurt Rookes went to the box for a two-minute high-sticking penalty. On the man advantage, the Royals would regain their lead. Dawson Pasternak (26) started off the rush from his own end before firing the puck over to Casper Evensen Haugen, who made the entry over the blue line. From there, Haugen found a streaking Pasternak who located the sweet spot in the slot and redirected the pass into the back of the Wild net.
The late powerplay tally was enough to send the Royals into the intermission with a one-goal lead, while also carrying a slight one-shot advantage into the middle stanza.
Victoria would continue that momentum as they once again started off the period with pace and persistence, which was rewarded with another early marker. Dawson Pasternak (27) made his bid for the Highlight of the Night as he took over in the offensive zone. The 20-year-old forward grabbed the puck before circling away from the Wild defense to open up a lane. From that point, he found an opening in the slot and executed a quick drag move before unleashing a wicked wrist shot that evaded the reach of Gee to give the Royals a two-goal lead. Cole Reschny and Tyson Laventure earned helpers on the goal.
Four minutes later, the Wild would cut the Royals’ lead in half. Rodzers Bukarts (15) doubled his nightly tally with assistance from Luka Scherbyna. With his second of the contest, the 19-year-old from Jurmala, Latvia, made it four times this season that he has recorded a multi-goal game.
It wouldn’t take long for the Royals to restore their two-goal cushion as they struck for more midway through the second. This time it was the leading goal-getter, Tyson Laventure (30), finding the back of the net. With the even-strength marker, Laventure became the 15th Royal in team history to reach the 30-goal plateau in a single season. Keaton Verhoeff notched the primary assist while Dawson Pasternak earned the secondary helper to bring him up to three points on the evening.
The Laventure marker kick-started a frantic offensive push from the Royals, as they added another pair of goals in the final stages of the second. First, it was Nate Missley (7) getting his first goal since returning from injury. The big defenseman made his way up the ice and received a perfect saucer pass from Tanner Scott. Missley crashed the Wild net and deflected home the Scott pass to give Victoria a three-goal lead.
Moments later, as the period was coming to a conclusion, Escalus Burlock (9) made it 6-2 in favour of the Royals. The towering forward recorded his second goal in his past three games after crashing the blue paint. Burlock worked his way over the blue line with Teydon Trembecky and Ben Riche before putting the puck through the five-hole of Gee.
That was enough to send the Royals into the second intermission with a 6-2 advantage, outshooting the Wild 20-18 through two periods of play.
Wenatchee would cut the Royals lead in half early in the third as Miles Cooper (17) made his mark in the contest, Jonas Woo tallied his second helper of the evening, while Rodzers Bukarts added the secondary assist which Brough his point total up to three on the night.
Victoria would restore their four goal lead with just under six minutes remaining in the third as Tyson Laventure (31) doubled his tally with a powerplay marker. Casper Evensen Haugen and Cole Rescnhy earned the assists on the play which was both of their second points of the evening.
Laventure’s second of the night was enough to help propel the Royals to a 7-3 victory as they picked up two crucial points against their Western Conference foes from Wenatchee.