Royals strike Oil versus Leduc

The Royals were back at home Wednesday night at Confederation Arena as they were looking for their first winning streak of the season as they hosted division rival, Leduc Co-Op Riggers in their first of four meetings this season. 

12 seconds into the first period, Kaleb Haskey found the back of the net to bury his first of two goals in the game and the Royals never looked back from there. Brody Vik also potted his second and third goals of the campaign in the first period, including a beautiful breakaway goal that he tucked five hole on Riggers goaltender Cohen Burnett. Ben Ankerman buried his first of two goals in the first period as well, extending his goal scoring streak to five games. Andrew Bender-Yantha also found twine in the first period and added another goal in the second period. 

Royals rookie forward Cooper Allan buried his first Capital Junior Hockey League goal in the third period on the power play when he drove the net and cleaned up a Andrew Bender-Yantha rebound giving the Royals an undisputed 10-2 lead. Jake Sokoloski also scored for the Royals in the second period. Leduc’s Noah Becker lead the way offensively with three assists on the night.

Royals forwards Kaleb Haskey, Ben Ankerman, Brody Vik and Jake Sokoloski all had three points on the night. Andrew Bender-Yantha, Cooper Allan, Carson Devlin and Royals rookie defensemen Wyatt Poulsen all potted two points in the night as well. Royals rookie goaltender Luke Kristiansen stopped 27-31 shots to secure his second win of the season. 

The Royals improve to 5-6-2 on the season and sit in fourth position in the East Division standings as the Leduc Co-Op Riggers fall to 2-9-0 on the campaign. The Royals are back on the ice Sunday night at Confederation Arena as they host the defending Capital Junior Hockey League and defending Junior B Provincial champions, the Morinville Jets. Puck drop is at 7:45 PM