The question of the game began to materialize as the minutes passed Friday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Was Taylor Gauthier, a free-agent invitee to Boston Bruins NHL rookie/prospects camp this month, going to steal the contest for the Prince George Cougars?
The former Canada U-18 goaltender, named third star, did his best in stopping 33 shots but it wasn’t enough as the Victoria Royals prevailed 2-1 before 5,697 fans.
The Royals are now 6-3 in their Western Hockey League home openers since coming to the Island in 2011-12.
Twenty-year-old Shane Farkas, meanwhile, was there when needed for the Royals in goal with a 22-save performance as Victoria moved to 1-1 and Prince George fell to 0-3.
Czech-import Matej Toman deflected a Ryan Schoettier point shot to open scoring for Prince George at 5:40 of the second period.
It took until the fifth period of the season for the Royals — shutout 6-0 by the Silvertips in their opener last weekend in Everett — to finally score. Carson Miller, named first star, found the top corner with a true sniper’s touch at 13:15 of the second period to tie the game and end the Victoria goal drought.
Rookie-import Keanu Derungs from Switzerland scored his first WHL goal at 4:56 of the third period to put the Royals into their initial lead of the young season. That held as the winning goal as Derungs was named second star.
Neither team has named a captain. Miller and defencemen Will Warm and Mitchell Prowse wore the assistant captain designations Friday, while Schoettler, Jackson Leppard and Josh Maser wore the 'A' on their Cougar jerseys.
The Royals and Cougars meet again tonight (7:05 p.m.) at the Memorial Centre.
ICE CHIPS: Both teams were missing key players. Forwards Kaid Oliver, last season’s leading scorer, and Danish U-20 international Phillip Schultz sat out for Victoria. Defenceman Cole Moberg, a draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks, was missing for Prince George, out two or three weeks with a shoulder injury, as was top-line centre Illijah Colina (shoulder injury).
