The Victoria Royals winless streak extended to 383 days. It鈥檚 not quite as bad as it sounds, of course, at a pandemic-interrupted 0-2.
The Royals fell 5-3 to the Prince George Cougars (1-1) on Monday night Kelowna. It鈥檚 still early. Even at that, there isn鈥檛 much time to rebound in an unforgivingly-condensed 24-game sa国际传媒 Division season played in the hub cities of Kelowna and Kamloops with no spectators. There are no playoffs. It鈥檚 a straight sprint to the top of the table.
Victoria veteran Brandon Cutler opened scoring one minute and 31 seconds into the game on assists from Anaheim Ducks first-round draft pick Brayden Tracey and team captain Tarun Fizer. It was the first goal for the Royals, blanked 5-0 in the season opener Friday by the Kelowna Rockets, since Tracey鈥檚 game winner at 11:22 of the third period in a 3-2 victory against Kelowna on March 11, 2020.
Prince George scored the next three goals before Keanu Derungs, who represented Switzerland in the 2021 world junior championship in Edmonton, scored Victoria鈥檚 first power-play goal of the season in five attempts at 15:12 of the first period. Fizer and Tracey assisted. Fizer then brought the Royals level at 3-3 at 2:52 of the second period on assists from rookie defencemen Jason Spizawka and Gannon Laroque for their first career WHL points. Ethane Brown made it 4-3 for Prince George at 6:55 and another Cougars veteran, Connor Bowie, scored his hat-trick on the power play at 19:19 of the second.
Adam Evanoff made 34 saves in goal for Victoria. The Cougars kept Taylor Gauthier, the third goaltender on sa国际传媒鈥檚 silver medallist team in the 2021 world championship, on the bench. Tyler Brennan started and made 29 saves.
It was the first game between the Royals and Cougars since Dec. 19, 2019.
鈥淲e played well in the third period but the first two periods cost us,鈥� said Royals coach and GM Dan Price.
鈥淭here was a reservior of effort and talent there, but we have to tap into it earlier in games.鈥�
The Royals have 12 rookies on the roster and the Cougars 10, with the latter having more impact. Four of the Cougars rookies have scored this season, including 16-year-old Riley Heidt with his first career WHL goal Monday, while not one of the Royals鈥� freshman has counted a goal. The Cougars rookies are of a higher calibre than Victoria鈥檚 due to the Cougars鈥� poor standing in recent seasons, which has accounted for much higher picks in the WHL bantam draft. Examples are forwards Heidt and Koehn Ziemmer, the second and fourth overall selections in the 2020 and 2019WHL draft, respectively.
The Royals play the Vancouver Giants (1-1) tonight in Kamloops.
