Vancouver Giants Royally flushed: Victoria continues to hold all the cards so far this season

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The Victoria Royals have eight wins in 10 starts against the Vancouver Giants this season and six victories in 39 games against their other Western Hockey League opponents.

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Their efforts against the Giants have kept the Royals (14-30-4-1) in the playoff hunt in the Western Conference. They currently share the eighth and final post-season post with the Tri-City Americans (14-29-5-0).

Vancouver’s efforts versus Victoria have been a part of the Giants (19-25-2-0) remaining a hard team to get a read on. The Giants, who have felt of late like they’re been climbing in and out of routes without warning, sit in seventh spot in the West, seven points up on Victoria with three games in hand.

Victory beat the Giants 3-0 in a Monday matinee. Vancouver came into the game off a 4-3 overtime victory over the second-place Kamloops Blazers on Saturday, which was a bounce-back game for the Giants after losing 5-2 to the Royals on Friday night.

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That Royals’ win there ended a 17-game losing skid for them and marked their first victory of 2022 calendar year. They hadn’t triumphed since beating Vancouver 7-3 on Dec. 30.

The 12-game season series between Vancouver and Victoria wraps this weekend, with a home-and-home set. Considering their struggles with the Royals, a strong showing would be a much-needed confidence boost for Vancouver in the stretch drive.

“We have to find a way to put together a full 60 minutes and give ourselves a chance to win,” said Vancouver defenseman Connor Horning, whose team had swept a road doubleheader from the Prince George Cougars going into that loss Friday to the Royals. “It’s frustrating. It’s never easy to go through these ups and downs. It’s all about a consistent effort.

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“In the Kamloops game, we gave ourselves a chance. I don’t think we’ve been doing that against Vic lately. We have to figure it out.”

Vancouver deserves blame for how things have gone for them against Victoria. At the same time, the Royals merit credit. They’ve taken advantage of scoring opportunities, have clamped down when they’ve had the lead and their goaltending has been first rate. They have looked like a poised playoff team.

NEXT GAME

friday

Vancouver Giants vs. Victoria Royals

7:30 pm, Langley Events Centre. Radio: Sportsnet 650. Web: watch.chl.ca

Tyler Palmer, a 17-year-old rookie from Fernie, had a 50-save shutout on Dec. 29 in a 3-0 triumph over the Giants, and then posted a 35-save goose egg on Monday. Against Vancouver on the season, he’s 5-0-0-0, with a 1.36 goals against average and a .961 save percentage. Overall, he’s 9-16-2-0, with a 3.71 goals against average and a .905 save percentage.

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Victoria has also dominated the special teams battle in the head-to-head match-ups. Victoria’s power play is clicking at 31 per cent (13-of-42) against the Giants, compared to 22.3 per cent (44-of-197) overall on the season. Vancouver’s power play is working at just 11.1 per cent (4-of-36) against the Royals, a drop from its 18.8 per cent (29-of-154) overall.

The Giants are one point in back of the sixth-place Cougars (19-27-2-1) with three games in hand. Vancouver has 22 games remaining in league play, including five against the fifth-place Kelowna Rockets (29-12-1-3) and 12 against US teams. The WHL extended the regular season two weeks to get in games postponed due to COVID-19 issues.

The Royals’ 19 games left include seven with Prince George.

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In the event of a tie in points for the eighth and final playoff spot, there’s a one-game playoff between the teams involved. That last happened in 2018-19, when the Blazers beat the Rockets 5-1 to grab a post-season spot.

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