Without question and no matter the what ending ends up being, the 2024–25 Victoria Royals campaign has been their best since they finished top of the WHL regular season standings in the 2015–16 season. They started the year strong primarily on the backs of C Cole Reschny (2025 NHL Entry Draft) and D Keaton Verhoeff (2026 NHL Entry Draft) taking the next steps. Import C Markus Loponen (Winnipeg Jets, 2024 NHL Entry Draft) was also a fantastic addition. Naturally, of course, they also got reliable work from captain/defenseman Justin Kipkie (Utah Hockey Club, 2023 NHL Entry Draft) and fellow NHL rights holding blueliner Nate Misskey (San Jose Sharks, 2024 NHL Entry Draft). All the while, James Patrick has proved to be, as one would expect based off of his résumé, a more than capable head coach to navigate the demands of being a competitive team. However, the point when the season really started to get exciting was when two fantastic offensive additions were made by way of trades for wingers Brandon Lisowsky (Colorado College commit) from the Sasktoon Blades and Kenta Isogai from the Wenatchee Wild. The amount of offense that they added was tremendous, as these two players had a combined 91 points between them before the deadline. This came without GM Jake Heisinger having to expend a first round pick, while only surrendering one full-time roster player in the form of longtime mainstay Tanner Scott in the Lisowsky deal. This activity is what took them from a solid playoff team to a true contender, with the two players adding 71 points of offense on the wings on the rest of the run. This culminated in Victoria winning their first B.C. Division crown since that aforementioned Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy winning campaign, via a road win against rivals the Prince George Cougars on Friday, March 21st. With a record of 40-17-4-7 W-L-OTL-SOL, this broke multiple long-standing points percentage barriers for the team.

The story of this current team is well-documented in different Black Stitch Hockey media. We’ve been vocal enthusiasts for Reschny nearly since our inception. We’ve spread Keaton Verhoeff propaganda. We’ve recapped some of their finest performances and even gotten our friends involved. That’s just on this site, to say nothing of how much air-time we’ve given them on our podcast. Now, we want to ask: How does this juxtapose with the best team in the Royals’ history since their inaugural season in 2011–12 (their first year after relocation from Chilliwack, where they were known as the Bruins)? What was their story? How does this history frame what’s on the line for the Royals faithful who have followed them for years as this playoff run commences? Let us take a trip down memory lane.

An onlooker probably wouldn’t have placed high expectations on the Victoria Royals going into the 2015–16 campaign. They were entering the year with seven true rookies on the roster, including three 16-year-olds, while coping with some big losses from the 2014–15 second round playoff squad including forwards Greg Chase, Austin Carroll, and Brandon Magee, alongside OFD Travis Brown. Additions included USHL (Lincoln Stars) transfer forward Ethan Price and D Jordan Wharrie, acquired by trade from the Everett Silvertips for unsigned defenseman Carter Stephenson. Returnees who would have a lot resting on their shoulders included forwards Alex Forsberg, Jack Walker, Matthew Phillips, and Tyler Soy, as well as D/World Junior gold medalist Joe Hicketts, who would be wearing the captain’s C for the second-straight year. The Royals would be wheeling out a mostly young and undersized group, but one with considerable skill. As noted in the previously linked Times Colonist article, head coach Dave Lowry had faith and dismissed the notion of a rebuild, and GM Cam Hope had similar sentiments but was realistic, stating “We’re in a ramp-up phase right now […] We have a young and inexperienced team. It’s a challenge for us. Our coaches’ hands are full. But they will impart to the young players what Royals hockey is all about.” It doesn’t seem like anyone knew what was in store for them.

When all was said and done, Forsberg, Soy, Walker, and Phillips would be the team’s top four point totalers in the regular season with 91, 85, 84, and 76, respectively. W/C Vladimir Bobylyov came in fifth with 67 (a remarkable turnaround from his nine point campaign with the Vancouver Giants the prior season) while also being the team’s leader among forwards in +/- with a +45 (trailing only D Ryan Gagnon, who had a +46, for absolute team lead). Hicketts led all defenseman in points despite a busy year for him where he once again participated in the WJC with Team Canada and missing 13 games total, with 61 points in 59 games to his name alongside a +38. 20-year-old goaltender Coleman Vollrath (whose experience was necessary for such a young team) and March 1998 born backup Griffen Outhouse both had very good seasons, with 31-13-2 and 18-3-4 records between them (Vollrath had a 2.40 GAA against a .912 SV%, while Outhouse posted a league-second-best 1.82 GAA with a .937 SV%). Ultimately, the biggest difference maker run for this squad was their 24-1-2 run in the back-half of the season, which gave them the first ever WHL regular season championship (the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy) in Victoria Royals/Chilliwack Bruins franchise history. This was additionally the capital city of British Columbia’s first WHL regular season title since the Victoria Cougars (who, appropriately enough, relocated to Prince George in 1994) captured the crown in their 1980–81 campaign (in which they were also Ed Chynoweth Cup winners as postseason WHL champs) and its third overall, further accompanied by the 1974–75 Cougars’ regular season title in the precursor WCHL. The Royals would close out the campaign with a two-game sweep of the Everett Silvertips in a home-and-home by scores of 4-2 and 4-1, yet, as noted by Cleve Dheensaw, their final total of 106 points was the lowest by a Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy winner in ten years. What mattered, though, was concentrating on the next goal. They would have home ice throughout the postseason and one had to wonder what would occur within the walls of the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre that playoffs.

Matched up against the Spokane Chiefs in round one, the Royals took the first two games at home by scores of 5-3 and 4-3. Game 2 was no easy task for them as they were without the services of both Hicketts and Gagnon on the back-end, but as had been the case all season, their speed and forecheck was a handful for their opponents. Spokane would respond by winning an emphatic 5-2 decision at home, but Game 4 would be the Alex Forsberg Show. He scored both the GTG in the second period (just 1:08 after Spokane’s Presten Kopeck put Spokane up 2-1 on the power play) and the OT GWG 8:41 into the extra frame to give VIC the 3-2 win and a commanding 3-1 series lead. Refusing to go away before the series went back to the SOFMC, however, Spokane won Game 5 at home by a score of 4-1, with brothers Kailer and Keanu Yamamoto both doing work on special teams (with a PP goal and a shorthanded goal, respectively, as bookends for their team’s scoring in the matchup) and Lasse Petersen standing tall between the pipes as he stopped 44 of 45 shots against. Once things were back in Victoria, however, the Royals put the series away with an emphatic 6-2 win, with Walker and Soy being the offensive MVPs by scoring two goals each and Phillips and rookie D Scott Walford both getting on the board. The top-seeded Royals would be moving on, with B.C. Division rivals the Kelowna Rockets serving as their next opponent.

The first four games were as closely competitive as you could get. Victoria won both of the first two games at home by a single goal (2-1, a game in which Vollrath notably had 40 saves, and 3-2, in that order), while Kelowna subsequently won two one goal games in their own barn in games 3 & 4, by scores of 3-2 and 4-3. Kelowna would really show out in the SOFMC in Game 5, winning by a score of 4-1, with Rourke Chartier scoring the game’s first goal and the empty netter to ice it. Victoria would not fold in Game 6 at Prospera Place, however, as they built up a 3-0 lead (with goals by Walker, Soy, and 1997 C Regan Nagy) and would not relinquish it, as Kelowna’s Cal Foote and Justin Kirkland were only able to bring the score to 3-2. This led to a fateful Game 7 at SOFMC, which seemed to start off promising enough as Soy scored just under two minutes in and Forsberg grew the lead to 2-0 on the power play at 10:31 of the first. However, ultimately, the “2-0 curse” would come knocking on Victoria’s door, as Kirkland would get on the board 1:13 into the third period, then miraculously tie the game with less than one second remaining. This would be the backbreaker, as Calvin Thürkauf would score the series winner for Kelowna 5:56 into the extra stanza. The dream season for Victoria had ended just barely short of them making the conference finals.

To date, reaching the seventh game of the conference semifinals is the longest playoff run in Victoria Royals/Chilliwack Bruins history. Some may say that there is a second round curse for the franchise. What this current run in 2024–25 offers is a chance to exorcise those demons. They are certainly positioned well with the talent that they have and the leadership in charge of this current group. However, while this team may have the pressure of “Doing it for the guys who’d been there and lost” in their pursuit of an Ed Chynoweth Cup (not an unreasonable goal given that the squad is now among the best across the entire WHL), it is possible that what is best for them is just to focus on each task, one at a time, and not get caught up in the demands of the occasion and of history. This is especially considering they are one of the least experienced teams in the postseason, in something of an echo of the past. Eric Kwakernaak advises in that same piece that they “act like they’ve worn the crown before” and put on some fake confidence, which may help them play to the moment. In any event, I have some faith in their ability to exhibit killer instinct and block out the noise. I anticipate we’ll see a very focused group as the opening round series against the Tri-City Americans, the same team that the journey commenced against at the beginning of this regular season (wherein a talented young defenseman in the form of Verhoeff, perhaps the new Joe Hicketts in this team’s current and upcoming phases, announced himself to the hockey world), commences tomorrow night. Let us enjoy the ride. It’s been quite a while since there was this much reason for confidence in a Royals team.