NEAL’S NOTES: ROYALS FACE OFF WITH GIANTS IN VANCOUVER
The pursuit for first overall in the WHL continues for the Victoria Royals as they get set to square off with the Vancouver Giants Friday night at the Pacific Coliseum. It’s the first game of a home-and-home series between the two BC division rivals.
The Royals ripped through Alberta with three convincing victories capped off with a 6-1 decision over the Edmonton Oil Kings Monday afternoon. The win was the sixth in a row for Victoria and lifted the Royals one point ahead of the Kelowna Rockets for the overall lead in the WHL with a record of 43-16-3-3. The Rockets hold two games in hand on the Royals and are in Kamloops Friday.
The line of Tyler Soy, Jack Walker and Vladimir Bobylev continued their hot streak at Rexall Place. All three scored goals with Soy notching a four point effort with a goal and three assists. Walker scored twice, including the game winner, and Bobylev has also picked up goals in back-to-back games. The trio combined for 32 goals and 62 points in 14 games in February. Coleman Vollrath continues to shut the door in goal for the Royals as he made 24 saves to earn his fifth win in a row.
With an assist, Alex Forsberg has a helper in six straight games and is tied for the longest current assist streak in the WHL. Forsberg matched Austin Carroll’s mark of 77 points last year, the most in Victoria Royals’ single season history. Matt Phillips also picked up an assist to run his point streak to five games with three goals and four assists in that time. Phillips leads all WHL rookies with 34 goals and 70 points.
The Royals have won five of the first eight meetings with the Giants with three straight victories. Walker leads the Royals with 12 points in the season series.
The Giants are now playing out the string after they were eliminated from playoff contention this week with back-to-back losses in Prince George and have dropped five in a row. Vancouver is a banged up group with seven players on the injury list, and none are day-to-day. Included is top scorer Chase Lang who has missed the last three games and earlier in the week was expected to be out 7-10 days with an upper body injury. Star forward Tyler Benson has been shut-down for the season with a lower body injury.
The teams will return to Victoria for their 10th and final meeting Saturday night, starting at 7:05pm.
