The Victoria Grizzlies went up the river without a paddle for the second time this season, capsized by the Langley Rivermen on Friday night.
Three goals in the first 4:49 of the opening period sunk the visiting Grizzlies, losing 6-3 at the Langley Events Centre.
The Rivermen also defeated Victoria 5-1 back on Dec. 2 at Bear Mountain Arena.
On Friday, Langley scored on its first three shots of the game, chasing starting Grizzlies鈥� goaltender Mike Stiliadis, who made way for backup Brady Rouleau.
Evan Campbell opened the scoring on the power play at 1:35 as Grizzlies forward Keyler Bruce took a kneeing penalty just 33 seconds in. Mitch McLain made it 2-0 at 3:22 and 1:27 later Austin Azurdia banished Stiliadis to the bench.
鈥淲hen they played us in Victoria they played extremely well. They鈥檝e got a lot of talent up front and, if you allow them, they can hurt you,鈥� Grizzlies general manager and head coach Bill Bestwick said prior to the trip to the mainland.
The defeat means the Grizzlies finally fall into double digits in the regulation-time losses column, slipping to 31-10-0-6 on the season.
The loss also snapped a 13-game streak of at least one point earned that dated back to Dec. 29.
Azurdia made it 4-0 on a short-handed goal early in the second period before Victoria finally got on the scoreboard with Turner Lawson鈥檚 goal at 5:24 of the middle frame.
Derek Sutliffe and James Robinson also scored for Langley, which had a 6-1 lead and improved to 19-19-1-5.
Leo Fitzgerald and Myles Fitzgerald added early third-period markers 2:32 apart for the Grizzlies, who are in Salmon Arm tonight at 7 and end the weekend trip in Vernon on Sunday at 4 p.m.
Myles Fitzgerald had earned an assist on Leo鈥檚 power-play marker to extend his impressive point-scoring streak to 21 games.
Despite the loss, Victoria does remain in first place overall n the sa国际传媒 Hockey League, three points up on Penticton as the Vees also lost 1-0 to Merritt.
