
My brother Dane and I planned on going to the party. My brother however was going to the Victoria Royals game with a bunch of his buddies first. What a great idea. Hunter my son had been to a Royals game last year with my Dad and brother and still talks about it to this day. With tickets still available my Dad, Hunter and I decided to join in on the WHL fun!
What a party it ended up being. The last time I went to a WHL game in Victoria was nearly 5 years ago. I have been to a few Vancouver Giants games but man Royals games are fun!
The fans in Victoria are fantastic. Total there were 6,093 people at the game. Which is a good turn out considering Victoria is a population of only 18,000. For $36 we got 3 tickets with a perfect view of the game. The hot dogs are great, the popcorn is delicious and the players are fantastic! They put on a great show. In the 60 minutes of play we saw 10 goals scored, one penalty shot, one goal that ended up not counting, one player scored a hat trick and I stopped counting fights after the 3rd one broke out.
If you don't live in a city with an NHL team or a AHL team go to a junior hockey game. They are very reasonably priced and these are the future stars of the NHL playing.
In the 10 goals I saw scored, Royal Brandon Magee scored 4 of them. That equals one hat trick plus an extra goal for safety. Brandon Fushimi scored the other two goals for Victoria. I guess you could say it was the night of the Brandons? Total 93 penalty minutes were handed out including eight 5 minute fighting majors, two 10 minute game misconducts and slew of two minute penalties. All in all it was a great night of hockey. I can highly recommend a WHL game in any arena at any time!

I don't have the chance to watch every game every night but I am always checking stats and wow some hot shots have taken off this season.
The Chicago Blackhawks for one are off to a crazy season. They haven't lost a game yet. They are 6-0-0 for a total of 12 points, leading the race in the West. Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa have been pulling their weight for the team. Kane has scored 2 goals and assisted 7 others for 9 points in 6 games while Hossa has scored 5 goals and helped out on 3 others for 8 points in 6 games.
Another fun hockey tale out of the west is the one from San Jose. Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau are at the top of the points chart with 13 apiece. Captain Joe Thornton has scored 3 goals and assisted 10 others while Marleau has scored a whooping 9 goals and assisted 4. Marleau was actually scoring two goals a game until Sunday (which tied a league record to start the season) when San Jose played the Canucks. Marleau only scored 1 goal but he did assist a goal and so still registered two points that night.
After Thornton and Marleau in the race you have Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning with 11 points. St. Louis is followed by another San Jose Shark Joe Pavelski who has 10 points. Did I mention that San Jose is 2nd in the west. With a perfect 5-0-0 record, 10 points. After Pavelski we have Steven Stamkos who has 10 points. Stamkos scored a crazy 60 goals last season so it is no surprise he is putting up the same stats as last year. After Stamkos you have Thomas Vanek who is a forward for the Buffalo Sabres. Vanek has scored 3 goals and assisted 6 others. After Vanek you have former New Jersey Devils captain and current alternate Captain of the Minnesota Wild Zach Parise who has 9 points, 5 goals and 4 assists. After Parise you have Patrick Kane with his 9 points. Finally, to round out the top 10 in scoring you have another San Jose Shark Logan Couture, who has 8 points, 3 goals and 5 assists. And finally another Buffalo Sabre in 10th place Jason Pominville, who also has 8 points, 3 goals and 5 assists. I do always love watching the points race unfold.