If the Victoria Royals have a secret formula against the Everett Silvertips, the rest of the Western Hockey League would like to hear about it. The Royals defeated the top team in the WHL and third-ranked in the 91原创 Hockey League for the second time in as many meetings this season with a 2-1 overtime victory Friday night before 4,125 ecstatic fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. The Royals (19-11-7) had beaten the Silvertips (28-5-4) 3-2 in overtime in their first meeting in November in Washington state.
Rookie defenceman Keaton Verhoeff decided it at 1:34 of overtime on a play started and assisted by veteran 20-year-old forwards Brandon Lisowsky and Kenta Isogai, acquired this week by the Royals from the Saskatoon Blades and Wenatchee Wild. Coquitlam product Lisowsky and Isogai, a native of Nagano, Japan, made immediate impacts by bringing a noticeable and skilled pep and vibe to the Victoria attack with the kind of flair and freshness this otherwise hard-working forward group had been missing. With the overtime assist, Lisowsky automatically became Victoria’s points leader with 44, surpassing by one point 2025 NHL draft first-round projected Cole Reschny, while Isogai automatically is the team’s tied-for-third-leading scorer with 39 points with his overtime assist.
Nanaimo product Brayden Boehm, the Royals other allowable 20-year-old, scored a first-period power-play goal that held up until Everett, outplayed and outshot 32-23 to the moment, tied it on the power play at 13:10 of the third period.
“The whole team is buying into the system,” said Royals goaltender Jayden Kraus, who was named first star for his 23 saves, while the Silvertips’ Jesse Sanche was named third star for his 34 saves.
Landon DuPont of the Silvertips is the projected next star offensive-defenceman of the Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar and Adam Fox mold. The Calgary native made his Memorial Centre debut Friday with an assist. The Royals, however, have a blueline rookie story of their own evolving with TSN head scout Craig Button this week putting six-foot-four Verhoeff into the “Aaron Ekblad” brand of the defensive tree: “That’s the type of game [Verhoeff] possesses. Everything projects with him being a top-pair defenceman in the NHL.”
This battle between Verhoeff, 16, and DuPont went to Verhoeff, who recorded his 13 goal of the season. There will be plenty more to come between these two over the next four years. “I’ve played against [DuPont for the past couple of years [in Alberta youth rep hockey],” said Verhoeff, before the game. “He is a really super-skilled player. But we focus on playing our game and not focusing just on him. A win would mean more than outperforming him.” Verhoeff did both on Friday.
DuPont is only the second player after current Chicago Blackhawks sophomore forward Connor Bedard to receive exceptional status to play in the WHL as a 15-year-old and the ninth in CHL history on a list that includes Ekblad, Connor McDavid and John Tavares.
DuPont came into the game on a run as WHL player of the week for his three goals and two assists in two games and WHL rookie of the month for December for his five goals, 11 assists and 16 points and plus-four rating over his last nine games. DuPont’s assist Friday gave him 41 points in 33 games.
The Royals travel to Everett for the back end of the two-game set tonight at Angel of the Winds Arena to begin a four-game road swing through the U.S. Division.
