The Victoria Salmon Kings finally dealt the Las Vegas Wranglers a losing hand, defeating the Wranglers 4-2 last night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

The victory was Victoria’s first in five ECHL games, and it also put a stop to a Wranglers’ winning streak against the Salmon Kings that had stretched for eight games over two seasons.

“It feels great,” Victoria forward Chad Painchaud said about the win. “We were upset.”

“We feel better.”

The Salmon Kings (7-13-3-0) and Wranglers (9-13-1-0), who won three against Victoria earlier this month in Las Vegas, finish their three-game set today and tomorrow at the Memorial Centre. The puck drops at 7:05 p.m. each night.

The faithful Salmon Kings followers at last night’s game must have been thinking, here we go again, at the abrupt, disappointing start to the game. The puck had barely dropped, when Wranglers centre Francis Lemieux whipped down and scored 22 seconds into the fray.

The Salmon Kings were probably thinking much the same thoughts as their fans, but came back a minute later with a power-play goal, poked past Las Vegas goaltender Joel Gistedt by Painchaud.

“We had a bad start, and the boys responded,” Painchaud said. “We just had to stay positive.”

The first period went back and forth with neither team taking control, a fact the Salmon Kings obviously decided to remedy in the second period. The S-Kings pressured hard all over the Wranglers zone, and

Gistedt was forced to make some nice saves to maintain the status quo.

“I think the first period reflected the pressure [of the tough, losing start to the season],” Victoria coach Mark Morrison said. “Once the jitters got out in the second period, they looked a lot more comfortable.”

But the Salmon Kings have just been having one of those seasons — eight of their 13 regulation losses plus three overtime losses have been by one goal. It was nearly seven minutes into the second period before the Wranglers mounted a rush on David Shantz in the Victoria net, and they scored, courtesy of Ryan Weston, at 6:54.

Rather than have their intensity wilt with understandable frustration, however, the Salmon Kings kept it going. They were rewarded when Andy Brandt tied the game at 12:49, and veteran Wes Goldie, with his 400th ECHL career point, was on the spot for a rebound for the go-ahead goal at 14:50. Jimmy Sharrow added Victoria’s second power-play marker of the game at 10:37, and seeing the team come to life with the man advantage was the key, according to Morrison.

“I think the thing that helped tonight was our power play,” Morrison said. “That’s what they were missing the most.”

SALMON BITS: Painchaud was the game’s first star, and the Wrangers Weston and Victoria’s Sharrow the second and third stars, respectively. … Today, the Salmon Kings are unveiling their new third jersey. The jersey has been inspired by the Winter Olympics coming up this February in Vancouver.