The Victoria Royals have now won five straight and their seventh in eight games with tonight’s 5-2 win over the Giants.
Victoria kicked off the first Lighthouse Island Bowl with Tyler Palmer in net and a man short three minutes in after Anthony Wilson took a penalty for charging. With 33 seconds left in the power play, Justin Lies swatted a high puck into the net to give the Giants the lead. With under 10 minutes to go, Anson McMaster and Nicco Camazzola each took a five-minute penalty for fighting, keeping the game at even strength while both teams traded shots on goal. Just as the period was about to end the Giants caught Palmer when he was down to make it 2-0 at the end of the first.
The second period started off with the Royals on the power play and with one minute to go Kalem Parker and Reggie Newman got the puck to Evan Patrician who scored the goal to make it a 2-1 game. Halfway through the second and Luke Shipley and Jason Spizawka connected to bounce the puck off the boards to Tanner Scott who was able to tie the game at two. The Royals continued to dominate the play throughout the remainder of the period, getting some incredible shots on net. With 4.3 seconds to go, Bailey Peach on an assist from Brayden Schuurman, scored to give the Royals the lead for the first time in the game, ending the period 3-2.
Similar to the first period, the Royals were on the penalty kill when Riley Gannon took a penalty for slashing. Victoria was able to kill off the penalty but continued to feel the pressure from the Giants offence through the first half of the period. Halfway and both teams were fighting for the win and were getting more aggressive as the period continued. The Royals went on the power play with just under five minutes to go when Gannon got the insurance goal to put Victoria up 4-2. Both Scott and Spizawka got the assists. Less than a minute to go and the Giants pulled Gurski when Schuurman made it 5-2 on the open net to end the game.
The three stars of the night were Bailey Peach (VIC), Tanner Scott (VIC) and Tyler Palmer.
The win was extra sweet for Royals captain Fizer who was playing in his 200th game.
“It was an unbelievable night. I can remember my first game here almost five years ago now and it feels like yesterday. Time flies,” Fizer said. “I thought about it all day. This is 200, hopefully we can pull it out and get the win and we happened to do that so I’m really happy.”
GM and Head Coach Dan Price spoke highly of both his captain and the team in tonight’s victory against the Giants.
“Fizer is a character guy who cares about his teammates and cares about the team first more than anything,” he said of his captain. “The team did a great job resetting after the first period and we felt like we were playing well. We really wanted to apply pressure, stay on our toes and get up on their defence. Our layers of support behind the puck did a really good job as well.”
Victoria is back on the road Tuesday when they face Kelowna and Kamloops before heading back home to face Tri-City next weekend. December 17th is the Royals Teddy Bear Toss followed by the Christmas Classic on the 18th.
