Still looking to establish a new franchise mark for victories in a season with 34, the Victoria Royals faced a mighty tall order with their second game in three nights against the Portland Winterhawks on Tuesday.
The Royals managed to keep the Western Hockey League-leading visitors in check for 20 minutes before the 鈥橦awks made a meal of it in the second period, erasing a 1-0 deficit.
Ty Rattie and Brendan Leipsic scored their 45th goals of the season to pace Portland to a 4-1 victory before an announced crowd of 5,107 at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
Dominic Turgeon scored for the Winterhawks in between the two tallies and then Taylor Peters made a slick move to his backhand to bury a short-handed breakaway to make it 4-1 after 40 minutes.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 their team,鈥� said Royals head coach Dave Lowry. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a reason why they have 54 wins. They鈥檙e a pretty good team. We played pretty smart and pretty hard in the first, we expected them to come out and have a push and that鈥檚 what they did.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why they are the team that they are.鈥�
The Royals opened the scoring with 27.1 seconds left in the first period after highly-touted Winterhawks defenceman Seth Jones appeared to step on the puck in the corner. Royals grinder Taylor Crunk threw it out front where it went in off Portland defenceman Tyler Wotherspoon鈥檚 skate.
Rattie tied it from a bad angle on a power play at 4:01 of the second to extend an amazing 29-game point streak on the road.
Portland turned it up a notch to start the middle frame, out-shooting Victoria 6-1 in the first six minutes and 10-1 by the time they took the 2-1 lead midway through the contest.
It was another rough second period for the hosts who have been out-scored 106-70 this season.
鈥淚t might be an area of concern and we have talked about it,鈥� Lowry said bluntly.
Logan Nelson appeared to score midway through the third for Victoria on a sweet backhand move, but video review showed it hit the crossbar and bounced out.
The Royals now have just one home game remaining, Friday at 7:05 p.m. against the Everett Silvertips in a home-and-home series that continues Saturday in Washington state.
Then it鈥檚 playoff time when the scene shifts to Bear Mountain Arena as the Ford Men鈥檚 World Curling Championship takes over Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
The Royals announced home post-season dates on Tuesday. After opening the best-of-seven series in Kamloops on March 22 and 23, Victoria returns home for Games 3 and 4 on March 26 and 28. If Game 6 is required, it goes April 1.
All home games, which will have reduced seating due to the limitations at Bear Mountain Arena, start at 7:05 p.m.聽
LOOSE PUCKS: Victoria remains without captain Tyler Stahl, Tim Traber (suspension), Trent Lofthouse, Patrik Polivka, Luke Harrison and leading point-getter Alex Gogolev, who sources say is about to undergo surgery and is done for the season. The team would not confirm that.
