Santa Barbara Royals Ice Hockey Club is on an 11-game winning streak in the Los Angeles Kings High School Hockey League.
The Royals’ latest win came against the South Bay Stingrays, 5-2, at their home rink, Ice in Paradise, last Saturday.
The team is currently in second place, two points behind the Burbank Cougars with four regular-season games remaining.
San Marcos freshman Johnny Niemela started things off against South Bay by scoring early in the first period. The Royals played strong defense all game, led by Santa Ynez High senior Nick Bowman who was a standout with two goals and one assist for the night. Dos Pueblos senior Marcus Flowers and San Marcos sophomore Eli Heinze each added one goal.
Last week, the Royals played the first-place Cougars, and battled back from a 4-1 deficit in the second period and made an unbelievable comeback to tie the score 4-4 in regulation time.
Eli Heinze made an excellent pass for an assist in the third period and went on to score the overtime winner to complete the comeback. He was named Player of the Week by the Los Angeles Kings.
“Eli has a tremendous work ethic that is contagious amongst his teammates,” said the Kings on the award post on the league website. “Eli is humble, very coachable, leads by example, and makes his teammates better hockey players on and off the ice.”
Coach Steve Heinze, a former NHL player, 1992 U.S. Olympian and Eli’s father, loves the camaraderie, work ethic and sportsmanship that defines the Royals team this year.
“These kids have known each other for a long time and really have each other’s backs. It shows in how they play,” he said.
The Royals have four sibling pairs playing together this year: Kennedy and Calvin Frisell, Johnny and Reese Niemela from San Marcos; Colin and Nick Bowman from Santa Ynez High; Daniel and Jack Finneran from Dos Pueblos.
“It’s great to see the bonding that happens when two brothers or a brother and sister are on the ice together,” says coach Heinze. “They protect and look out for each other. These life lessons that come from playing on a team are what hockey is all about.”
Season playoffs begin March 5 at Ice in Paradise, 6985 Santa Felicia Drive in Goleta. The championship game will be played at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on March 13 at 12 p.m.
The Royals will recognize five seniors, including captain Noah Kangas, of Santa Barbara High, this Friday, Feb, 4, at 7:15pm at Ice in Paradise. Admission is free.