Royals Bounce Back from Shootout Loss to Take Decisive Win Over Wenatchee

The Victoria Royals played a two-game series against the visiting Wenatchee Wild on October 11 and 12, coming away with a loss in the shootout followed by an explosive victory to celebrate Marty the Marmot's birthday.

Friday's game was a physical, defensive affair that saw a plethora of penalties to both sides. The Royals had trouble keeping up with the Wild early on, including a brutal second period that saw Victoria trapped in the defending zone for the majority of the frame. Teydon Trembecky would eventually wake the team up with a patient, nasty toe-drag snipe with 12 minutes left in the third period, followed by a power play missile from defenseman Nate Misskey six minutes later to tie the game at three. After an exciting overtime that saw the Royals execute careful puck movement while unable to pull the trigger, Wenatchee would beat Jayden Kraus twice on the glove side to get away with the shootout victory. With the amount of penalties in Friday's game making special teams such a key factor, the Royals' lackluster power play performance certainly didn't do them any favours.

Saturday's rematch was an entirely different story. Once again, the first period was a slow start, with Wenatchee taking a narrow 1-0 lead, but that would soon prove to be the calm before the storm.

The Royals exploded into the second period like a team possessed. The speed, the physicality, the offense, everything was turned up a notch. The Wild would find the back of the net on the power play after Royals forward Deagan McMillan was given penalties for fighting and the extremely rare "hair-pulling", but Sherwood Park's own Tanner Scott would follow up swiftly, executing a suave, effortless backhand after snapping up an uncontested rebound. Scott would later continue his hot streak with his signature short-handed tenacity, floating a lead pass for Nate Misskey, who would tickle the twine off the rush to tie the game.

Victoria still would not let up from their electric second-period onslaught, with who else but Tanner Scott deflecting a low shot on goal and watching as Wenatchee goaltender Noah Stenvig accidentally kicked it into his own net. The Royals would light the lamp once more in the final minute of the second period on a simply magical tic-tac-toe power play tally from Trembecky to Reschny and finally to newly acquired forward Brayden Boehm.

The third period carried the same energy from Victoria in a sharp, crisp, hungry final frame that saw two more unanswered goals from Nate Misskey and Nolan Stewart respectively, and ended in a 6-3 final score.

Tanner Scott was named first star of the game for his three-point performance, and when asked about the Royals not giving up or letting their feet off the gas, he stated that it's his "favourite thing about our group."

The Royals will look to bring the same energy next Friday, October 18, when they take on the Prince Albert Raiders at home.