TRI-CITY 6-VICTORIA 5
With a nine-day Christmas break looming between games, Royals head coach and GM Dan Price exhorted his charges to “empty the tank” Saturday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
But that’s easier said than done when you are missing nine players and are down to 15 skaters and two goaltenders, which is three fewer players than allowed. The Royals were tenacious, but simply wore down in a 6-5 WHL loss to the Tri-City Americans before 2,616 fans.
It was a game of waves, with Tri-City taking an early 2-0 lead, followed by four consecutive Victoria goals, which were answered by two straight from the Americans. Victoria took a 5-4 lead before Tri-City scored the last two to take it.
The Royals went down early in first-period goals as Colorado Avalanche draft pick Sasha Mutala of the Americans, returned from the Colorado Eagles of the AHL, scored at 53 seconds. Rhett Melnyk, on an assist from Parker Bell of Campbell River, made it 2-0 just 5:23 into the game.
Reggie Newman brought the Royals to within one with his first career WHL goal at 6:00 followed by Tanner Scott’s equalizer at 8:31 on his seventh of the season. Bailey Peach’s 12th gave Victoria the lead at 16:21. Riley Gannon made it 4-2 on the power play in the second period before Bell pulled Tri-City back to within one and Samuel Huo tied it 4-4. Evan Patrician, with Victoria’s second power-play goal, restored the lead. Mutala levelled it 5-5 in the third period with his second of the night for his 12th point in his last eight games.
Defenceman Gannon Laroque, a fourth-round draft pick of the San Jose Sharks, had three assists in a fine two-way effort for Victoria.
Among the six injured Royals players are captain Tarun Fizer and blueline mainstay Anson McMaster. Forwards Keanu Derungs and Marcus Almquist are away on junior national team duty with Switzerland and Denmark, respectively. Defenceman Wyatt Wilson, assessed a major penalty and game misconduct Wednesday in Kamloops, sat out his second game as part of a suspension the league is still determining.
With such a short bench, the last thing the Royals needed was a lack of discipline and to tire themselves out by killing questionable penalties, but they took a glaring double minor to Peach, allowing Tyson Greenway to score the winner for Tri-City on the powerplay at 10:34 of the third period.
Pressure, aided by physicality, is such a big part of Victoria’s game but Price warned his players need to “take it to the edge but not over.”
Victoria’s tenuous hold on the eighth and final playoff position in the Western Conference shrank to two points ahead of ninth-place Tri-City with the Americans holding a game in hand. The Royals (9-13-4) are 2-1 against the Americans (8-13-4) this season.
The Royals return to action after the Christmas break with three consecutive games in the cross-strait rivalry against the Vancouver Giants, on Dec. 27 in Langley and Dec. 29-30 at the Memorial Centre.
