Saturday 11 October 2014

Preview: Victoria at Medicine Hat, Sat. Oct.11th

The Victoria Royals (3-4-1-0)  visit the 6th ranked team in the CHL, the Medicine Hat Tigers (7-1) Saturday night at 6:30 PST.

Online: www.thezone.fm/whl

The Tigers have won 4 straight after a 5-1 victory in Red Deer Friday.

Defenseman Kyle Becker led the way with 2 goals and an assist as the Tigers outshot the Rebels 35-28 with netminder Marek Langhammer collecting his 4th win in 5 games.

Medicine Hat was 2 for 3 on the power play, while shutting out all 3 Red Deer man advantages.

The Tigers sit atop of the Eastern Conference with 14 points, winning 7 of 8 games thus far.  Leading the way offensively is Cole Sanford with 17 points in 8 games (5g, 12a).

Last season the Royals picked up a win and a shoot out loss in their two meetings.

Victoria fell 4-3 in a shoot out in Medicine Hat, and followed it up with a 2-1 win on home ice.

The Royals have won back to back games, with points in 3 straight.  They earned their first road win of the year against the Hitmen 3-2 giving them five out of a possible six points in its last three games.

Victoria rallied from a two goal, third period deficit with three unanswered Friday night.  Down 2-0 after 40 minutes, the Royals rallied with goals by Logan Fisher, Tyler Soy and Austin Carroll.

Soy had a goal and an assist while being named first star and Joe Hicketts had a pair of helpers.  Carroll extends his point streak to 6 games with 5 goals and 3 assists.  He has a league high 5 game goal scoring streak (5g).

Coleman Vollrath stopped 27 shots, and came through killing off 6 of 7 Hitmen man advantages.  He’s now 5th in the league in saves, with 200.  For a second game in a row, Victoria’s power play went 2 for 5.

The club saw the return of Axel Blomqvist who picked up an assist, but are still without Brandon Fushimi, and Brandon Magee who is set for return in Cranbrook next Saturday night.

Defensivley the Royals have buckled down, only allowing 5 goals over their last 3 outings.   The Bengals have outscored their opposition by a margin of 23 goals, 35 for, and 12 against.

The Tigers Cole Sanford leads the WHL in scoring with 17 points in 8 games including a league high 12 assists.  Forward Chad Butcher is on a 4 game goal scoring streak with 4 tallies and 3 assists during that span. The line of Sanford-Owre-Cox have combined for 34 points this season.

Netminders Marek Langhammer and Nick Schneider have the 3rd and 4th best Sav % in the league at 0.949 and 0.933.

Medicine Hat features 3 NHL Drafted players, Langhammer (PHX, signed), Tyler Lewington (WASH), and Tommy Vannelli (STL, signed).

Friday, the Royals claimed 17 year old defenceman Marsel Ibragimov off of WHL Import Waivers today from the Edmonton Oil Kings.  He’s a 6-2, 197 lb defenceman from Kazan, Russia, drafted in the first round by Edmonton in the 2014 CHL Import Draft (58th overall). Ibragimov has skated in one game for the Oil Kings this season.  The acquisition, required the placement of Kristian Ferletak onto waivers.

Victoria plays in Red Deer Tuesday, Edmonton Wednesday, then Lethbridge and Kootenay Friday and Saturday.

-Marlon Martens

Victoria Royals vs Medicine Hat Tigers: Head To Head Stats
Summary

  
Description
Result
Head to Head Record 2014-15 Regular SeasonVictoria 0-0-0-0Medicine Hat 0-0-0-0
Head to Head Record 2013-14 Regular SeasonVictoria 1-0-0-1Medicine Hat 1-1-0-0
Last 5 Years record between teamsVictoria 5-3-0-1Medicine Hat 4-4-1-0
Victoria vs. Medicine Hat Last 5 Years record at VictoriaVictoria 3-1-0-0Medicine Hat 1-2-1-0
Victoria vs. Medicine Hat Last 5 Years record at Medicine HatVictoria 2-2-0-1Medicine Hat 3-2-0-0
  

How the 2 teams match up
   
 
Medicine Hat
Victoria
Team Record7-1-0-0 -- 14 points3-4-1-0 -- 7 points
Division Ranking1st Central5th B.C.
Conference Ranking1st Eastern7th Western
League Ranking2nd13th
Past 10 Games7-1-0-03-4-1-0
Streak4-0-0-02-0-1-0
Last Game5-1 W @ Red Deer (Oct 10 2014) Final3-2 W @ Calgary (Oct 10 2014) Final
Home Record3-1-0-02-1-1-0
Away Record4-0-0-01-3-0-0
GF35 23 
GA12 31 
PP (Overall)(9/49) 18.4(10/45) 22.2
PP (Home)(4/30) 13.3(4/20) 20.0
PP (Away)(5/19) 26.3(6/25) 24.0
PK (Overall)(3/29) 89.7(7/37) 81.1
PK (Home)(1/13) 92.3(4/16) 75.0
PK (Away)(2/16) 87.5(3/21) 85.7
Leading RookieBradley (3-2-5)Hannoun (1-2-3)
Most PIMStanton - 17Crunk - 20
Team PIM/GM13.6/Game17.8/Game
Leading ScorersSanford (5-12-17)Carroll (5-3-8)
 Cox (1-9-10)Hicketts (3-4-7)
 Butcher (5-4-9)Soy (2-5-7)
 Eisenschmid (4-5-9)Walker (2-4-6)
 Owre (4-3-7)Brown (2-4-6)
Last 5 Games5-1 W @ Red Deer (Oct 10 2014) Final3-2 W @ Calgary (Oct 10 2014) Final
 5-1 W vs Kamloops (Oct 4 2014) Final6-2 W vs Portland (Oct 6 2014) Final
 8-1 W vs Saskatoon (Oct 3 2014) Final2-1 L vs Swift Current (Oct 4 2014) Final OT
 4-2 W @ Edmonton (Sep 30 2014) Final5-3 L @ Vancouver (Sep 28 2014) Final
 2-1 L vs Edmonton (Sep 27 2014) Final4-3 W vs Kamloops (Sep 27 2014) Final OT
Leading After 1st5-0-0-01-1-0-0
Leading After 2nd6-1-0-01-1-0-0
Tied After 1st1-1-0-01-0-0-0
Tied After 2nd1-0-0-01-0-0-0
Trailing After 1st1-0-0-01-3-1-0
Trailing After 2nd0-0-0-01-3-1-0
Out Shooting Opponents6-1-0-01-1-1-0
Out Shot by Opponents1-0-0-02-3-0-0
1-Goal Games1-1-0-02-0-1-0
2-Goal Games2-0-0-00-2-0-0
3-Goal Games0-0-0-00-1-0-0