Something had to give Friday night in Spokane.
It was either going to be the Victoria Royals鈥� three-game losing skid or the Chiefs鈥� six-game winless streak.
Advantage Chiefs.
Spokane (4-5-2) edged Victoria 2-1 before 4,229 fans at the Veterans Memorial Arena to send the reeling Royals (7-5) to their fourth consecutive WHL defeat.
Keanu Yamamoto opened scoring for Spokane at 17:37 of the second period. Victoria levelled with 37 seconds remaining in the middle period with Jared Dmytriw converting a pass from behind the net by Tyler Soy into a gaping opening. Kailer Yamamoto, the younger of the two homegrown Spokane brothers, scored on the power play for the Chiefs at 2:22 of the third period for the winner.
鈥淲e played a decent road game but took too many penalties,鈥� said Victoria coach Dave Lowry.
While Spokane converted one of those six power-play opportunities against the Royals鈥� league-best penalty-kill unit, Victoria鈥檚 struggling power play was left to rue the six chances it was unable to convert on. But Lowry wasn鈥檛 blaming his odd-man unit.
鈥淲e had all kinds of chances and I was happy with the looks [at net] we got on the power play,鈥� he said.
Game third-star Coleman Vollrath made 35 saves in goal for Victoria and first-star Tyson Verheist 31 for Spokane.
鈥淐oleman gave us a chance to win,鈥� said Lowry.
The two-game set, which ends tonight in Spokane, closes out a four-game road swing for Victoria. The Royals are in the midst of a stretch in which they play 10 of 11 games away from Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. The home game is Tuesday night on Blanshard against the Lethbridge Hurricanes. After that, the Royals embark on the longest road trip of the season 鈥� six-games through Saskatchewan and Manitoba that begins next Friday in Prince Albert against Marc Habscheid鈥檚 Raiders.
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