The Santa Barbara Royals earned the No. 3 seed for L.A. Kings High School Hockey League playoffs after beating the East County Outlaws 5-1 in the in their final regular season game on Saturday at Ice in Paradise in Goleta.
The Royals (11 wins, 3 losses, 0 ties, 2 overtime losses) will host the West Ranch Wildcats in one of two quarterfinal games at 4:45 p.m on Saturday, Feb. 29.
The Burbank Cougars (13-0-0-1) and Kern County Knights (11-4) finished in first and second place respectively and will advance directly to the semifinals off a bye week.
Cameron Whicker opened scoring for the Royals with a power play goal in eighth minute of the first period.
“We were on a power play and ran cycles, setting up guys who are left-handed on the left and right-handed on the right side to try and get people open,” said Whicker on his goal which opened scoring. “(The Outlaws) got a bit scrambly, one of our guys threw it out in front and got it to me and I was able to get it in the back of the net.”
The Royals, a hockey team consisting of high school players from Dos Pueblos, San Marcos and Santa Barbara high schools, hosted their senior night and players were prepared to face an old foe they defeated 7-1 and 5-0 earlier this month. The teams got into a scrap in a previous meeting.
“I wouldn’t say (there was) bad blood. We needed to win to give ourselves a better chance for the playoffs seeding.” said Royals coach and former NHL player Steve Heinze. “Certainly, once the game starts getting a little chippy like it did then the intensity picks up a bit.”
Santa Barbara’s Peter Frisell nailed a distance shot in the second period for a 2-0 lead.
Captain Amistad Hernandez assisted Jack Lawrence’s second-period goal. Lawrence shot it off a teammate’s shoulder and into the goal to extend their lead to 3-0. Within the next two minutes, Tony Turner assisted Ryan Martindale for a 4-0 lead.
Andrew Salentine snagged a goal in the third period.
Royals goalie Jonah Marmorstein saved all but one Outlaw shot on goal in the victory.