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After slow start, Victoria Royals preaching patience

It often seems in September in the Western Hockey League that you’ve entered through the looking glass, or the magic wardrobe, or some strange vortex.

It often seems in September in the Western Hockey League that you’ve entered through the looking glass, or the magic wardrobe, or some strange vortex.

With elite players, who usually belong to the elite teams, spending time in NHL camps and exhibition games, the early-season standings can seem topsy-turvy.

That partly explains why the Portland Winter Hawks (0-5) and Calgary Hitmen (1-2) — both highly regarded for 2014-15 — are off to tepid starts. Only two of Portland’s whopping 13 NHL camp players remain away, and only one of Calgary’s 10, but many of them were late send-backs over the weekend and it takes time to get everybody working as a team again.

Yet, the Edmonton Oil Kings had 12 players in NHL camps and Kelowna 11, and those clubs are both 3-0. So this is clearly not an exact science.

The Victoria Royals, coming off franchise records last season for wins (48) and points (100), are off to a 1-4 start following a 5-3 loss to the Giants in Vancouver on Sunday and are another WHL team people are wondering about.

The rebuilding Giants, meanwhile, are 3-0 after rallying from being behind 2-0 early in the second period and a 3-2 deficit heading into the final period against the Royals at the Pacific Coliseum. The Giants scored three unanswered goals in the third period, including the winner from rookie sensation Tyler Benson.

Victoria has received back all six of its players who were in NHL camps. But there is no call to man the muster stations just yet on the good ship Royals. That’s because the roster situation is still in flux.

Defenceman Keegan Kanzig and forward Austin Carroll only got back over the weekend from the Calgary Flames. And as soon as Axel Blomqvist was returned from the Winnipeg Jets, he was knocked out indefinitely with a concussion due to a high hit in Friday’s game against the Kamloops Blazers. Veteran forward Brandon Fushimi missed Sunday’s game due to a lower-body injury and is doubtful for at least the next week. Veteran defenceman Ryan Gagnon missed the last two games because of a two-game suspension for a charging penalty. Brandon Magee, last year’s team scoring champion, has seven games remaining in a 12-game suspension to start the season.

“We went through it last year with a slow start, too. It’s just part of the game,” said Victoria GM Cam Hope.

“It’s a 72-lap race and we’re only five laps into it.”

Hope, a former auto racer, stuck with the track analogy in explaining Sunday’s result.

“It was our third game in three days and we just ran out of gas in Vancouver,” said Hope.

Yet, the case can be made the Royals played well in defeat, with the Giants’ tying and winning goals coming off weird and unlucky bounces. A sign of Victoria’s increased pressure was also evident in that it took goaltender Payton Lee being named the game’s third star for Vancouver to pull out victory.

“Our guys battled hard,” said Hope, whose club finally broke into the win column on Saturday night with a last-gasp 4-3 overtime win against the Kamloops Blazers. “You can see signs the old Royals are emerging again.”

Jared Dmytriw’s first career WHL goal and Carroll’s second goal in as many games, this one on the power play, staked Victoria to the two-goal lead. After Vancouver levelled, sophomore Tyler Soy’s first of the season made it 3-2 for Victoria at 19:22 of the second period.

Goals late in periods usually provide a boost for the scoring team heading into the next frame. But perhaps that’s when the fatigue factor started to show as Victoria was outshot 11-4 by Vancouver in the third period.

Meanwhile, NHL camp call-ups are simply among the early-season issues with which WHL teams must contend. But the players who get that opportunity, of course, wouldn’t have it any other way.

NHL-signed Kanzig went from playing for the Flames against the Vancouver Canucks in an exhibition game on Friday night to facing the Kamloops Blazers on Saturday back in junior. How’s that for emotional whiplash?

“It’s a big swing and you have to re-focus,” said Kanzig, over the weekend.

“I was disappointed in getting cut from the Flames, so there are mixed emotions. But I’m happy to be back. This [junior] is at a different speed and there is a different level of player, but I still have to go out and play my best.”

The Royals host the Swift Current Broncos on Saturday before a game, also at the Memorial Centre, next Monday against the Winterhawks.

ICE CHIPS: The Royals signed 16-year-old goalie Griffen Outhouse of the B.C. Major Midget League’s Cariboo Cougars to a WHL contract Monday.