There was nothing cartoonish about the Victoria Royals’ performance for much of Saturday night, even if they were sporting SpongeBob SquarePants jerseys.
But Mr. Krabs intervened as Victoria squandered a 4-1 lead in a 6-5 Western Hockey League overtime loss to the Prince George Cougars before 3,280 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
“There were some critical errors after the lead and it’s infuriating and they will be corrected overnight [the Royals face the Everett Silvertips in a 3 p.m. matinee today at the Memorial Centre],” said Royals GM and head coach Dan Price.
“Those errors resulted in one point instead of two points.”
The overtime loss left Victoria (15-36-7) eight points behind Kelowna, with the Rockets holding three games in hand, in the Royals’ rapidly-diminishing hopes of capturing the eighth and final playoff berth in the Western Conference with only 10 games remaining.
“The mindset is just to keep going,” said Royals defenceman Justin Kipkie, who scored twice against Prince George.
But the blown lead was something to rue.
“We made a huge push [to build the lead] but it was tough the way it finished,” said Kipkie.
“Playing the full 60 minutes is going to be the key for us down the stretch.”
The emerging Kipkie has seven goals and 30 points and is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal season on Blanshard Street.
“Justin Kipkie is going to be an NHL draft pick this year,” predicted Price, despite that that six-foot-three native of Calgary was not cited by Central Scouting in its mid-season rankings for the 2023 NHL draft.
The Cougars (28-23-4) clinched a playoff berth with the win, the fifth team in the Western Conference to do so, thanks to Chase Wheatcroft’s overtime goal that completed his hat-trick on the night. The Royals held Koehn Ziemmer and Riley Heidt, the 20th and 26th ranked North American skaters for the 2023 NHL draft to one and two assists, respectively but couldn’t account for Wheatcroft.
It’s pick your poison in the Cougars’ crease with Tyler Brennan a fourth-round NHL draft pick of the New Jersey Devils and Ty Young a fifth-round draft pick of the Vancouver Canucks. Prince went with Young on Saturday evening and he made 29 saves. Braden Holt stopped 39 shots for Victoria.
Four of the five Royals goals came from defencemen with Kipkie’s two and one each from Austin Zemlak and Jason Spizawka, the latter with his first of the season. Forward Teydon Trembecky had a goal and assist.
The Royals wore SpongeBob SquarePants jerseys for the game as among 17 of the 22 WHL teams wearing Nickelodeon-themed jerseys, from SpongeBob and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to PAW Patrol and Blue’s Clues, on Children’s Miracle Network Nights to support hospitals across Western sa国际传媒, including sa国际传媒 Children’s Hospital.
Today’s matinee at the Memorial Centre between the Royals and Everett (28-24-3) will feature two goaltenders facing their old teams. Holt was traded mid-season from Everett to Victoria in exchange for former Royals’ creaseman Tyler Palmer.
