You could see this coming all the way down Blanshard Street.
The Kelowna Rockets defeated the Victoria Royals 5-1 in a Western Hockey League game Sunday evening before an announced crowd of 3,084 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The deflating result came one night after Victoria recorded the most emotionally resonant victory of the season on Saturday before more than 6,600 fans in knocking off the Regina Pats, the top-ranked major junior hockey team in the country and previously undefeated in regulation time.
But a familiar old refrain came back to haunt the Royals 鈥� flat follow-up efforts following wins.
Victoria is now 1-7-1 in the back end of back-to-back sets following victories.
鈥淧reparation and urgency . . . [weren鈥檛 there Sunday],鈥� said Victoria head coach Dave Lowry.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 answer why. We have a lot of growing up to do as a group. Back-to-back games are not something new for us. It鈥檚 obviously a concern.鈥�
The Royals (13-9-2) have a chance to make amends tonight when they meet the Rockets (13-10) again at the Memorial Centre.
Asked what the Royals could do better today, Lowry deadpanned: 鈥淲in the opening face-off.鈥�
He was making a point and only half-kidding.
鈥淭he Kelowna players were ready to play at the start of the [Sunday] game,鈥� said the Victoria bench boss.
Victoria goaltender Griffen Outhouse鈥檚 personal trajectory has followed that of his team in general, with stellar performances followed by soft outings. This weekend was case in point as Outhouse followed up Saturday鈥檚 towering 43-save performance and first-star status against Regina by allowing two early goals by Kelowna on Sunday.
Outhouse was pulled, in favour of backup Dylan Myskiw, who in turn allowed two more Kelowna goals in the first period. Myskiw was replaced with Outhouse coming back into the game in the second period.
Lowry refused to hang Sunday鈥檚 loss on his goalies.
鈥淚 was just trying to spark the bench [with the goaltender switching],鈥� he said.
鈥淏ut it didn鈥檛 work.鈥�
Following the big night against Regina on Saturday, Outhouse specifically mentioned the need to come back with a strong performance again Sunday to finally break that back-to-back hex.
It didn鈥檛 happen as two goals by Rodney Southam and others by Leif Mattson and Kole Lind staked Kelowna to a 4-0 lead before the game was 13 minutes old.
鈥淚t comes down to mindset,鈥� said Outhouse, the 18-year-old native of tiny Likely, sa国际传媒
鈥淲e have good first games and then think the bounces will also go our way in the second game. I need to be better [in the second games].鈥�
Nolan Foote鈥檚 power-play goal at 8:25 of the second period made it 5-0. This was the Rockets first visit to the Memorial Centre since that stunning Kelowna goal last spring in Game 7 with .02 seconds remaining in regulation time en route to an overtime victory that led to the WHL regular-season champion Royals being knocked out of the playoffs. With Foote鈥檚 goal, the Rockets had outscored the Royals 7-0 at the Memorial Centre since the dying moments of that fateful Victoria playoff collapse last April.
It took Dante Hannoun of the Royals, on a power-play goal, to make it 5-1 at 9:40 of the second period on Sunday to finally break that sorrowful streak.
鈥淲e come into second games not prepared,鈥� said Hannoun.
鈥淎nd in each one of those second games of back-to-backs, our first period has not been good. We have to focus on having better starts.鈥�
Outhouse looked ahead to today鈥檚 rematch against the Rockets and concurred.
鈥淥ur first 20 minutes cost us [Sunday]. We had a good final 40 minutes,鈥� he said.
Veteran Michael Herringer from Comox made 25 saves in goal for the Rockets. Outhouse and Myskiw combined to make 27 saves for Victoria.
The Royals had an apparent Ryan Peckford goal disallowed in the first period on a controversial call. That would have made it 2-1 and perhaps stemmed Kelowna鈥檚 momentum.
Missing from the lineup on Sunday was Victoria star forward Tyler Soy, who left Saturday鈥檚 game against Regina favouring his shoulder.
The Rockets are 2-0 this season against Victoria following a 6-4 victory by Kelowna earlier this season in the Okanagan.
Looking to today鈥檚 rematch, Royals captain Ryan Gagnon said the onus is on the Victoria players.
鈥淲e definitely realize it鈥檚 on us to prepare. We have a lot to improve on,鈥� said Gagnon.
鈥淲e need to regroup and focus on that next game. We will be better.鈥�
