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Victoria Royals suffer ugly loss to Vancouver Giants

VANCOUVER 4 VICTORIA 0 If this is the Polar Express heading into Christmas, the Victoria Royals and Vancouver Giants are careening on such opposite tracks that they might give conductor Tom Hanks whiplash.
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Goaltender Coleman Vollrath took over after Jayden Sittler allowed four goals on 27 shots.

VANCOUVER 4  VICTORIA 0

If this is the Polar Express heading into Christmas, the Victoria Royals and Vancouver Giants are careening on such opposite tracks that they might give conductor Tom Hanks whiplash.

The Giants won their sixth consecutive game, the fifth under former Winnipeg Jets NHL head coach Claude Noel and second in a row over Victoria, with a 4-0 victory Saturday before 4,844 fans at the Pacific Coliseum on Ugly Sweater Night. The game was just plain ugly for the Royals (17-16-2), who were outshot 51-27.

The Victoria special teams seemed to completely collapse again, giving up three power-play goals Saturday after also allowing three, plus a short-hander, in a 6-3 loss to the Giants (15-18) on Friday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

Saturday’s was the second of eight games as Royals head coach for Enio Sacilotto, ordinarily the assistant, who is filling in while Dave Lowry is away as assistant coach for Canada at the upcoming world junior hockey championships.

Sacilotto pointed to Vancouver defenceman Mason Geertsen’s power-play four minutes into the game as the key.

“We got behind the eight-ball early and were chasing the game,” Sacilotto said.

“Our special teams again gave up too much. We have to regroup and take personal responsibility.”

Five of Vancouver’s six consecutive wins have come under Noel, who is 5-0 after assuming the Giants bench Nov. 30 from former Victoria Salmon Kings ECHL coach Troy Ward. The first win in the streak was under assistant coach Matt Erhart after Ward was fired and before Noel got in.

While Victoria continues to figure out ways to compensate for the loss of mobile blueliner Joe Hicketts, who is at the Canadian selection camp for the world junior championships, Geertsen continued to destroy the Royals.

The six-foot-four 2013 fourth-round Colorado Avalanche draft pick, who had a goal and assist in the Giants win on Friday in Victoria, continued his tear with two goals and an assist Saturday.

Victoria starting goaltender Jayden Sittler allowed four goals on 27 shots before being replaced by Coleman Vollrath at 7:29 of the second period.

The Royals had some pushback to close out the game but couldn’t solve Cody Porter.

Victoria concludes the pre-Christmas portion of its schedule with a set in Washington state — Tuesday in Seattle and Wednesday in Everett — before returning to the Memorial Centre on Dec. 27 against Prince George.

ICE CHIPS: Veteran Victoria forward Brandon Fushimi returned after missing two games. … Assisting Sacilotto on the bench, in Lowry’s absence, is Royals’ director of player personnel Grant Armstrong.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com