The Victoria Royals beat the Kelowna Rockets 5-2 at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on Wednesday.
This victory marks their first win of the season and breaks the eight game losing streak the Royals were on.
This was also the first game the Royals played since the WHL’s 20-year-old cutting deadline.
The league’s rule is that no team can have more than three 20-year-old players, so General Manager and Head Coach, Dan Price, had some difficult decisions to make.
The team ended up trimming defenceman Anson McMaster and goaltender Campbell Arnold prior to Wednesday night’s game.
“On behalf of the Royals organization I want to sincerely thank Campbell and Anson for their contributions to the team and to the community of Victoria and Vancouver Island,” said Price.
In the Royals first game without McMaster and Arnold, goaltender Tyler Palmer made 40 saves of the 42 shots Kelowna managed to make, making him the first star of the game. Victoria had a total of 29 shots on goal against the Rockets.
The games started off scoreless in the first period, then Kelowna put some points on the board in the second getting two goals while the Royals claimed only one goal against the Rockets.
The third period was the turning point for the Victoria Royals. They put four pucks into the Kelowna Rockets net, claiming the win.
Royals forward Matthew Hodson scored two goals throughout the game and the newly acquired Jake Poole had a couple of assists.
Point streaks, stellar saves, and a big win 🙌
Catch the highlights from last night's 5-2 win! 🎥#ReadyToRoar pic.twitter.com/XrwILofhYC
— Victoria Royals (@victoriaroyals) October 13, 2022
This game marked the second time Poole played against his old teammates since Poole was traded to the Royals for a draft pick.
The Victoria Royals next game is against the Brandon Wheat Kings on Saturday, October 15th at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
It’s going to be a special occasion too, as the Royals will be celebrating their mascot, Marty the Marmot’s 17th birthday party prior to the puck-drop.
