Royals Run Into Penalty Trouble Against Blazers

  The Victoria Royals opened their first ever preseason game last night with a loss.  They succumbed to the Kamloops Blazers to a final score of 4-2.  The Royals started goaltender Jared Rathjen, and the Blazers played Cam Lanigan in net.  The Blazers scored first, 9:20 into the game, with a 5-on-3 powerplay marker by J.T. Barnett.  It qukcly got worse for the Royals as just a mere 65 seconds later when, Kamloop's forward, Colin Smith scored a power play marker of his own.  The first period ended with the Royals outshooting the Blazers 13-10, but trailing 2-0.

   The Royals finally got on the board thanks to a shorthanded tally by Robin Soudek just 37 seconds into the period.  At the halfway point of the period both teams made goalie changes.  Braden Gamble replaced Rathjen for Victoria, and Lanigan was replaced by Cole Cheveldave by the Blazers.  The new goalies would keep both teams scoreless for the rest of the second period.  The second ended with the Blazers outshooting the Royals 13-7, and leading 2-1.

  The Blazer's captain, Chase Schaber,  scored his first preseason goal at the 8:31 mark of the third period.  Royals standout Kade Pilton got this team back within one with a powerplay marker of his own at the 14:32 mark of the third.  The Blazer's would put the game away a mere 71 seconds after, as Chase Souto scored yet another powerplay marker to give the Blazer's a 4-2 lead.  The Royals were unable to get the two goals needed in the final 5 minutes.

  The Royals went 1/5 on the PP, while the Blazers went 3/11.  The Royals ran into penalty trouble this game.  11 penalties is a lot to give up and it can make a team tired very quickly by having to kill off all those penalties.  I would think that the head coach will talk to the players about discipline before tonight's game.

  This was Joe Hicketts first and only preseason game.  As he is to young to play in the WHL this year, he will make the team next year, he will now stay at home in Kamloops.  It was a busy 10 days for the WHL first round pick, and he showed every reason why he was a first round pick with his play in those 10 days.

   The next Royals game is tonight at 7:05 P.D.T. against the Kelowna Rockets.  You can listen to the game tonight live on 91.3 The Zone.