The day didn鈥檛 get any better.
Most responsible for Victoria鈥檚 recent backslide are the Vancouver Giants, and they added to it Wednesday night with a 4-3 WHL victory before 3,251 fans at the Pacific Coliseum.
The Giants won the four-consecutive game set against the Royals 3-1, although they remain last in the Western Conference at 11-19-4. Victoria is now 20-11-2 as the Prince George Cougars have taken over second place in the sa国际传媒 Division, based on winning percentage, behind the Kelowna Rockets.
鈥淲e made little mistakes tonight, and it seems lately that any time we do that, the puck is in the back of our net,鈥� said Royals assistant coach Enio Sacilotto, in his fourth of 13 games as bench boss while head coach Dave Lowry is away with sa国际传媒 at the 2016 world junior championship.
Victoria squandered a 3-2 lead with less than six minutes remaining in regulation time.
It was a pair of Island players who helped do in the Royals on Wednesday as veteran Chase Lang scored the winner for the Giants with under two minutes remaining in regulation time for his 10th goal of the season. Fellow Nanaimo-product Owen Hardy opened scoring in the first period. It was the 16-year-old rookie鈥檚 first goal in the eight games he has played for the Giants since joining Vancouver after beginning the season with 25 games for the Clippers of the BCHL.
Defenceman Jordan Wharrie leveled at 15:21 with his first goal as a Royal and third of his WHL career. Carter Popoff gave Vancouver the lead again with 10 seconds remaining in the opening period. Defenceman Ralph Jarratt tied it 2-2 in the second period on the power play. A wrist shot from the right circle by forward Regan Nagy gave Victoria the lead at 7:29 of the third period.
Vancouver tied it 3-3 when Brennan Menell scored at 14:31.
Coleman Vollrath made 23 saves in goal for Victoria. Ryan Kubic made 26 for Vancouver.
The Royals were missing forward Alex Forsberg, who sat out a one-game suspension for being the instigator of a fight in the last five minutes of Sunday鈥檚 game.
The Royals were also without defenceman Joe Hicketts who is away at the 2016 world juniors.
