Seventh heaven turned into a bit of hockey hell for the Victoria Royals.
The Royals went 7-0 to start for the second consecutive Western Hockey League season. But on the eighth game, they tasted defeat in both 2017-18 and again this season.
Victoria, the last remaining undefeated team in both the WHL and the wider 60-team Canadian Hockey League, finally fell on Sunday afternoon in a 3-2 loss to the Vancouver Giants before 4,359 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
鈥淚t would be nice to go 68-0 but you know that鈥檚 not going to happen,鈥� said Royals' sophomore head coach Dan Price.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not the loss that matters as much as how you respond to it.鈥�
The result followed a 3-2 Royals victory in overtime against the Giants on Saturday night at the Memorial Centre.
鈥淓verything comes to an end,鈥� said forward D-Jay Jerome, who scored one of the Victoria goals Sunday while defenceman Mitchell Prowse recorded the other.
What may be of concern to the Royals is just how comprehensive Vancouver鈥檚 victory was as the Giants, the seventh-ranked team in the CHL top-10 poll, moved to 8-1-1. It could have been much worse if not for the goaltending of Victoria veteran Griffen Outhouse as the Giants outshot the Royals 40-20.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e not going to win them all,鈥� said Outhouse, named first star on Saturday and third star on Sunday.
That said, the Royals know their performance just wasn鈥檛 there in the latter game and was hardly reflective of being the nationally fourth-ranked team in the CHL.
鈥淲e came out strong early in the first period but flattened out after that,鈥� said Outhouse. 鈥淚t鈥檚 good to get it out of our system. We know what we have to do but didn鈥檛 execute.鈥�
The Giants, likely the class of the sa国际传媒 Division, bedeviled the Royals with their slyly-quick breakouts and astute transition game.
鈥淸Giants] came out hard this weekend,鈥� acknowledged Jerome.
鈥淭hey have a lot of returning guys and were just more prepared. We need to have a good rest of the week and a big bounce back Wednesday night [when the Royals host the defending WHL champion Swift Current Broncos].鈥�
Turnovers were a problem all weekend for Victoria as the Giants took three of a possible four points in their Island swing.
鈥淥ur puck management has to be better,鈥� said Price.鈥淭he way to counter their counter [attack] is to not give them the puck. That鈥檚 on me鈥�
Calgary Flames draft-pick Milos Roman scored twice for Vancouver on Sunday. The winning goal by Brayden Watts came on the power play at 16:21 of the second period.
鈥淲e managed to do well against an undefeated team,鈥� said Giants' captain and former Royals forward Jared Dmytriw.
鈥淚t was easy to get up for these games. Our playoff series last season went down to the wire [won in seven games by Victoria over the Giants] and now both these teams are off to such great starts this season.鈥�
The speedy Dmytriw, an over-age 20-year-old from Craven, Sask., played 3 1/2 seasons for the Royals before splitting 2017-18 with Red Deer and then Vancouver. This season, he was named the 16th captain in Giants franchise history. But his years on Blanshard are with him still.
鈥淭his building [Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre] will always be special to me,鈥� said Dmytriw. 鈥淚t even smells the same when you enter.鈥�
Meanwhile, the Royals鈥� six-game homestand continues Wednesday against the Broncos and continues against the Kelowna Rockets on Friday and Saturday and concludes with a tilt against the Brandon Wheat Kings on Oct. 27.
