The Victoria Royals鈥� dominance over Interior sa国际传媒 rivals hit a speed bump on New Year鈥檚 Day, dropping a 4-1 result against the host Kamloops Blazers in afternoon Western Hockey League action at the Sandman Centre.
In six meetings this season, the Royals are now 4-2 versus Kamloops, outscoring the Blazers 18-13.
Victoria moves on to Kelowna tonight to take on the Western Conference鈥檚 No. 1 team, the Rockets. In three previous outings against that Okanagan-based side, the Royals are 2-1 with nine goals for and four against, including a 3-0 win in Kelowna.
The Rockets will be a surly bunch, however, as they also lost 3-1 on the road to the Everett Silvertips on Friday afternoon and faced a five-hour-plus journey back to face the awaiting Royals. Kelowna was badly outshot 31-16 in that game and had just two shots in the opening period.
鈥淔or us, I thought we played well enough and played hard enough, we probably just didn鈥檛 play smart enough,鈥� said Royals assistant coach Enio Sacilotto. 鈥淭here were too many turnovers and we didn鈥檛 take advantage of pressure points in the game.鈥�
Sacilotto referred to scoring late in the first period, but not carrying that momentum into the second. Victoria also benefited from a disallowed Kamloops goal that drew a power play on a goalie interference penalty six minutes into the second.
The power play failed to cash in and was 0-for-2 in the game while the Blazers tallied once on three opportunities.
鈥淲e have to put more pucks on the net,鈥� Said Sacilotto.
Jermaine Loewen and Ryan Rehill scored goals 1:32 apart in the latter half of the second period to snap a 1-1 draw. Matt Revel then added an empty-net goal with Coleman Vollrath pulled for an extra Victoria attacker.
Kamloops鈥� leading scorer Collin Shirley and Victoria鈥檚 Jack Walker traded first-period goals with Vladimir Bobylev collecting an assist for the Royals to extend his point streak to five games. Each team recorded 14 shots in the opening 20 minutes after Victoria had the early edge in that department at 7-1 at one point.
The Blazers fired 42 shots at the Royals鈥� net, while Victoria sent 30 at Kamloops netminder Connor Ingram.
It was a great opportunity for the Royals to pull three points ahead of Prince George in second place in the Western Conference. The win never materialized and Victoria has now played two more games than the Cougars, who were off Friday, but are at home to Vancouver tonight.
The result 鈥� which ended a string of points in three straight games 鈥� followed Victoria鈥檚 3-2 win in Kamloops on Wednesday in which they allowed 38 shots. The Blazers snapped a three-game losing streak Friday in which they lost all three by one goal.
AROUND THE LEAGUE: The Red Deer Rebels acquired 20-year old forward Adam Helewka (a fourth-round pick of the San Jose Sharks) from the Spokane Chiefs on Friday in exchange for 20-year-old captain Wyatt Johnson, 15-year-old prospect Eli Zummack and second-round and fifth-round selections in the bantam draft in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
