VICTORIA 7
KAMLOOPS 2
That was quite a heady national lead-in the Victoria Royals received before their Western Hockey League game Saturday afternoon against the Kamloops Blazers.
Rookie Royals forward Cole Reschny and goaltender Braden Holt were interviewed on Sportsnet in a game like no other for the Royals. The Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada broadcast also ran a feature on the Royals program that has kids from Quadra Elementary School come out to skate and interact with the team during practices.
Following a feature on Barry Pederson, Grant Fuhr and the 1981 WHL champion Victoria Cougars, Hockey Day host Ron MacLean told the national audience: “[These Royals] are kind of symbolic of the Cougars team of 1981.”
That’s quite a statement, but the rising Royals (24-14-6) lived up to the limelight with a 7-2 victory over the rebuilding Kamloops Blazers (10-28-5) before 6,153 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre as Dawson Pasternak scored a hat-trick, NHL Arizona Coyotes-drafted defenceman Justin Kipkie two goals while Reschny recorded three assists.
But how can you not be uplifted when you receive a pre-game pep talk from former NHL star and Stanley Cup champion Lanny McDonald, here for Hockey Day, and who addressed the Royals before the game. Former Blazers great and former NHLer Darcy Tucker, also here for Hockey Day, addressed his old Kamloops team before the game.
“Lanny McDonald was great. He really got the boys going,” said Royals’ brace-scorer Kipkie.
“This is a huge event and it was great having Hockey Day in Canada going on the city. That was evident by the big crowd that came out today and gave us a lot of energy.”
The moment wasn’t lost on Reschny, either: “Having one of the best players to play the game, Lanny McDonald, give the pep talk before the game was special and motivates you even more.”
On a personal level, Reschny will remember Saturday as his first taste of national recognition: “Having Hockey Day here is one thing, but being interviewed on Sportsnet is quite another thing. It was pretty special.”
There could be a lot of that ahead for Reschny if his career trajectory pans out.
Meanwhile, Royals head coach James Patrick, also a former NHLer, was happy to yield the room to McDonald before the game.
“He announced the starting line-up in the room and went one better than my pre-game talk, let’s put it that way,” Patrick said with a laugh.
“The players were really excited to see him here in the dressing room and hear from him. He went around and fist-pumped every guy. Lanny is one of the great spokesmen of our game and still sells hockey everywhere he goes. It was exciting for all of us, myself included.”
Patrick, however, felt his team was otherwise distracted early in the game by the surrounding swirl of activity and excitement involving Hockey Day in Canada. The first period was scoreless and Kamloops led 1-0 in the second period before the Royals exploded.
“I think for a team in this situation, and I’ve seen it before, you want to do something really special or really fancy instead of your job,” he said.
“That’s what we looked like in the first half of the game. In the second half of the game, we started making plays.”
The Royals and Blazers meet again his afternoon at 3:05 p.m. in the Memorial Centre.
