Does Griffen Outhouse ever rest?
The workhorse Victoria starter made his 46th appearance of the Western Hockey League season with 21 saves in a 3-1 Victoria Royals鈥� victory over the Vancouver Giants.
The sophomore native of Likely, sa国际传媒, picked up his 27th win before 4,283 fans Friday night at the Langley Events Centre.
But a breather may be on the way.
Back-up goalkeeper Dylan Myskiw returned from injury to the Victoria lineup for the first time post-Christmas. Expect to see Myskiw in the nets sooner rather than later.
鈥淲e need Dylan. We can鈥檛 play Griff every night,鈥� said Royals head coach Dave Lowry.
It was the first of three consecutive meetings between the clubs, continuing tonight and Sunday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. The cross-strait derby is an annual 10-game affair. Victoria (27-19-4) leads this year鈥檚 series 3-0-1.
First period goals by Jack Walker, his 23rd of the season, and defenceman Scott Walford spotted the Royals to a 2-0 first period lead Friday. Ethan Price pushed that to a three-goal advantage in the second period.
Lowry liked the push in the first two periods.
鈥淲e had a good 40 minutes tonight,鈥� he said.
鈥淏ut in the third period, we let [the Giants] spend too much time in our own zone.鈥�
Tyler Popowich of Vancouver made it 3-1 in the first minute of the third period.
The Royals put 31 shots on Giants netminder Ryan Kubic.
The Giants are last in the Western Conference at 17-28-4 and appear on their way to missing the playoffs for the third consecutive season and fourth time in the last five years. Vancouver traded away four veterans earlier this month in a full-out rebuild and was again missing injured high second-round Edmonton Oilers draft pick Tyler Benson.
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