Everett downs Victoria 3-2

If the Victoria Royals were as aggressive and abrasive on the ice as their mascot Marty the Marmot is on Twitter, they might be in a better spot.

Instead they are fighting for their collective playoff lives, dropping their second straight Wednesday to the surging Everett Silvertips, who are clawing at the Royals’ heels in the Western Hockey League standings.

“Almost bizness time!! @victoriaroyals against the Everett Silverdrips. Rematch tonight!! Student Night — we ready... we ready!!” the rambunctious rodent tweeted prior to the back end of a doubleheader against the Silvertips.

With Everett starting the evening five points back, it was imperative for the Royals to get off to a quick start, taking a more aggressive tact. They failed to do it in a 3-2 loss in front of 4,227 at Save-on-Foods Centre.

To make matters worse, Seattle blanked Kelowna 2-0 to clutter up the Western Conference standings as the Thunderbirds move into seventh place with the same amount of points as Victoria, but with three games in hand. Everett sits three points back of the Royals with two in hand after also winning 3-2 here Tuesday.

“We won’t get those four points back. You play those guys at home and you have to find a way to get wins and we didn’t,” said Victoria head coach and general manager Marc Habscheid. “It seemed like we were a step behind again. It seemed like the puck went one way and we went the other.”

The Royals did pin the Silvertips in their own end for the first two minutes of the opening period, but neither team managed a shot until Everett’s Trent Lofthouse banged at a loose puck 5:49 in, which Victoria netminder Keith Hamilton pounced on. The Silvertips out-shot the hosts 12-5 in the first 20 minutes and 20-13 after two periods.

Jamie Crooks finally got the Royals going on a power play, swatting in a rebound of Hayden Rintoul’s point shot at 2:16 of the second for a 1-0 lead.

Ryan Harrison, at 8:05 of the second, and Ryan Chynoweth, at 14:59 of the same period, gave the visitors a 2-1 advantage after two, before Dakota Conroy converted on a fine feed from Rintoul at 4:47 of the third. Harrison collected the winner, however, at 11:37.

“It’s never easy coming into someone’s building, back-to-back, and coming out with two,” said visiting coach Mark Ferner. “Like I told them, we’re going to worry about how we play and not who we play.”

The Royals are now off until Wednesday as the Calgary Hitmen come calling before another big matchup, with playoff ramifications, the following weekend as the Prince George Cougars return for a pair.

ROYALS NOTES: Victoria was without Tyler Stahl, who received an automatic one-game suspension after his charging major Tuesday.

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