Coming off their first win in franchise history, the Ste. Rose Royals recorded another first, Friday. Deagan Delaurier made 22 saves to record the first shutout in the team’s short history, an 8-0 whitewash over their expansion cousins, the OCN Storm.
Riley Johnston led the Royals with two goals and an assist, while Dean Richard also netted a pair. Bradley Potoroka, Mitchell Merry, Jarrett Traverse and Denis Baptiste also scored for Ste. Rose, which outshot the visitors 54-22.
Like the Royals, Ste. Rose coach Bryan Luke said the Storm (0-13) are going through some growing pains in their first season. “It was a game that we wanted to take advantage of to get another win and get some confidence going forward,” he said.
On Saturday, the Royals traveled to Winnipeg to play the North Winnipeg Satellites. Ste. Rose got off to a good start, building a 4-1 lead by the 5:48 mark of the second period. But the Royals could not hold on to that lead, losing 6-4.
Richard had two goals for the Royals, while Johnston and newcomer Jarrett Day added singles. Delaurier took the loss, making 25 saves. “We were sticking to the game plan quite a while and doing everything we needed to do to win. Once we had our lead, we kind of sat back a little bit. Once we sat back, we couldn’t get off our heels,” Luke said.
“That’s just something we’ve got to take some experience there and move forward.” On Sunday, the Royals fell 5-1 to the visiting Selkirk Fishermen. Merry had the lone goal for Ste. Rose, tying the game at one with eight minutes left in the first period.
Selkirk scored three goals in a four-minute span in the second period to break the game open. Connor Bell made 29 saves in taking the loss. “We made a few mistakes and they scored three goals in a span of a few minutes,” Luke said.
“We feel like we’re right there. If we make one mistake that costs us a goal, we can’t turn around and cause three more. It will just take a little bit of time. We feel we can compete with anybody in the league. The whole team is positive. One thing is they’re a lot better now that they were at the start of the year. We just need to keep going forward.”
The Royals will face a tough couple of games this week as they play the top two teams in the league. They play the second-place Peguis Juniors, Friday in Peguis at 8 p.m., before hosting the league-leading Lundar Falcons, Sunday at 3 p.m.
Luke hopes his team can bounce back with a couple of solid efforts. “We always feel as long as we play the way we can and eliminate our mistakes, keep it very simple, we feel like we can compete. Most of the teams are going to make you pay for the mistakes you make. Right now we’re making too many mistakes,” he said.
