Torched by the Blazers on Friday and over-matched by the Giants on Saturday, the Victoria Royals came away with a King-sized headache from opening weekend play in the Western Hockey League.
Exactly 24 hours after the Royals were doubled 6-3 in Kamloops, the road team dropped a 3-1 loss to the host Vancouver Giants on Saturday night at the Pacific Coliseum.
Unlike Friday’s sluggish start, the Royals got on the scoreboard first on Saturday courtesy of Travis Brown’s second power-play goal in successive nights at 11:32 of the first period. It came a handful of minutes after Victoria goaltender Coleman Vollrath stoned Carter Popoff, getting across the crease to make the save.
But two goals, 39 seconds apart, from Joel Hamilton and Tyler Morrison in the last three minutes of the opening period gave the host Giants a 2-1 advantage heading into the dressing room.
“We didn’t generate near enough,” Royals’ head coach Dave Lowry said of his club, which was outshot 11-4 in the opening 20 minutes, 29-10 after two periods and 45-12 by game’s end. “We started well, turned the puck over which gave them a goal, and didn’t recover.”
Ryan Gagnon hit the post and Logan Fisher rung a puck off the crossbar for Victoria in the opening stanza, following the big Vollrath save and prior to the Brown goal.
The Victoria offence continues to struggle without Brandon Magee, Austin Carroll, Joe Hicketts, Axel Blomqvist and Keegan Kanzig, who all remain in National Hockey League training camps. Magee is suspended for the first 12 games.
Jack Walker also missed his second straight game for the Royals, who start the season 0-2 with a thin lineup.
“If you look at our lineup, there are not a lot of guys who have scored at this level,” Lowry said.
He did get a good performance from Vollrath, who turned aside 42 shots to be named the game’s second star.
“I thought my goaltender did a good job of rebounding,” said Lowry, who had to pull Vollrath from the opener on Friday.
He did surrender a third goal to Thomas Foster at 9:01 of the third period.
Victoria’s power play struggled for the second straight night, going an identical 1-for-6 with the man advantage.
mannicchiarico@timescolonist.com
Twitter/tc_vicsports
