Goaltender Griffen Outhouse and the Victoria Royals are off to the second round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.
The Likely netminder, who is playing in his final season with the Royals, helped backstop his club to a 4-1 victory over the Kamloops Blazers Monday in game six of their round one WHL playoffs series.
Outhouse stopped 34 of 35 shots on goal in the winning effort.
Pretty cool moment. Outhouse, harrassed by Loewen for six games, tracked down the #Kamloops captain after the game to congratulate him on playing tough. #WHL pic.twitter.com/2rBkcjHRM4
— Kamloops This Week (@KTWonBLAZERS) April 2, 2019
The Royals will now meet their coastal rivals, the Vancouver Giants, in the second round with game one going Friday, April 5 at the Langley Events Centre.
Victoria will host the third and fourth games of the seven-game series at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on Tuesday, April 9 and Thursday, April 11. If necessary, they’ll also host game six on Monday, April 15.
After defeating the Blazers, the Royals are the second seed in the B.C. Division, while the Vancouver Giants finished as the top team in the Western Conference and B.C. Division. The Giants will hold home-ice advantage after winning their first best-of-seven series against the Seattle Thunderbirds, 4-2.
The series will mark the second time in the Royals’ eight-year history the two teams have met in the WHL playoffs. Victoria defeated Vancouver in seven games int he first round of last year’s playoffs.
As for his family back home in Williams Lake, Griffen’s mom, Cindy, said it’s always fun to watch her son play.
Cindy, along with her mom and dad (Griffen’s grandparents), travelled to Kamloops for game four of the first-round series.
READ MORE: Outhouse records 100th career win; sets franchise record with WHL’s Royals
“Win or lose, I always think to myself: ‘Here I am, someone from the little town of Likely, sitting in a beautiful arena, watching my son play hockey in the WHL.’
“[My mom and dad] are in their 70s and still ranching out in Likely, so it was quite a big deal for Griffen to have both gramma and grampa get to a game. It was so great to see the sparkle in Griff’s eyes when grampa gave him a big hug and whispered to him how proud he is of him.”
She said his family is so proud of his success, and added he has worked extremely hard to get where he is.
“We’re even more proud of the man he’s become,” she said. “He always has time for his family, his friends and his fans; and he has the greatest fans around.”
sports@wltribune.com
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