Badly outplayed in the first half of the outing and smothered by the Tri-City Americans for those first 30 minutes, the Royals hung around, just one goal down despite numerous defensive errors and costly giveaways.
The locals dug deep after the Americans adjusted well following an embarrassing 8-2 loss the night before.
Victoria somehow found a way to take three one-goal leads in the second half of the game, but fell short, losing 5-4 in overtime due to some late penalties that allowed both the tying goal (with just 1:03 remaining in the third period) and game-winner on Tri-City power plays.
The Royals, at 7-0-1-0, are still undefeated in regulation time and earned a valuable point, despite not being at their best. They now begin their longest road trip of the year in a two-week excursion that begins tonight in Spokane, heads to Seattle on Saturday before venturing to Edmonton, Regina, Brandon, Saskatoon and Prince Albert before returning home for an Oct. 28 date against Vancouver.
That鈥檚 a seven-game, 6,123-kilometre trek through one state and four provinces when you count the journey back to sa国际传媒
So Wednesday鈥檚 setback is a valuable lesson learned, said head coach Dan Price.
鈥淔or us, pushing forward we have to make sure from the start that we try to establish our pace of play sooner and more consistently so that we鈥檙e not in a position where we might be at risk later in the game,鈥� said Price.
鈥淭hey [the Americans] did a good job of just pressuring more, closer to the puck and were faster to close. We had to adjust and find mistakes elsewhere. The players did that, but it was a bit of an adjustment.鈥�
The result was, however, more proof that even when outplayed the Royals have the scoring depth to always keep them in the game
鈥淚 think our team is a resilient team, for sure,鈥� said Price. 鈥淕riff [goalie Griffen Outhouse] stood in there and made some good saves for us. We pushed back n the second half, especially the third period. We had the lead and then there were some weird breaks and bounces.鈥�
Badly out-shot - 31-8 31 minutes into the game before the Royals struck on Matthew Phillips鈥� power-play goal 鈥� the Royals did give up 46 shots in total, which might be a little alarming, even though most were from the outside. To date, Outhouse has faced 248 shots in seven games for an average of 35 per night. His save percentage is a very healthy .935, second best in the league, as he personally has amassed a 6-0-1-0 record.
And even though it was just the first loss of the season, it is important for the Royals to bounce back.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 always important throughout the course of a season that any time you have a game where, as a team you may not be as happy with, to come out and have a really good effort the next night,鈥� said Price.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not reflective of the record, you just want to have that as a good habit to always have a good response if a game doesn鈥檛 go your way.鈥�
A lack of discipline hurt.
鈥淒efinitely, we want to keep [penalties] to three or less a game, especially against a team like that,鈥� said Regan Nagy, who had two goals in Wednesday鈥檚 loss. 鈥淭hey have a lot of talent and guys who can put the puck in the net.鈥�
Victoria allowed three power-play goals on seven chances, but also scored twice with the man advantage and recorded a short-handed marker. Late in the game, Phillips was tagged with a delay of game penalty on a bad bounce off his stick and over the glass and Chaz Reddekopp was fingered for high sticking with 13 seconds left in the third.
鈥淭hey got some power plays at the end and made some timely plays to score the goals they needed,鈥� said Price, who now looks ahead.
鈥淚t鈥檒l be great for us to get to know each other even better,鈥� he said of the long trip. 鈥淭he group is already close and there are great buildings we get to play in, in some great cities.鈥�
