RED DEER 6
VICTORIA 2
The high-powered Victoria Royals offensive machine was running on fumes Saturday and the Red Deer Rebels took advantage.
Playing their fourth game in five nights on the road, the Royals had their four-game winning streak snapped, losing 6-2 to the Rebels in front of 5,500 fans at the Enmax Centrium.
The Rebels smothered Royals sniper Matthew Phillips, who was coming off back-to-back hat-tricks for 35 goals on the season. Phillips, a draft pick of the Calgary Flames, was held off the scoresheet Saturday as the Rebels’ top line took over the spotlight. Lane Zablocki, Brandon Hagel and Michael Spacek combined for 15 points, with Zablocki getting the hat trick for the Rebels, who halted a four-game winless skid and improved to 21-20-4-3 on the season.
“[That line] came at us hard in our own end all night and we didn’t handle the pressure like we usually do and that was the end result,” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry, whose club slips to 26-19-4-0 on the season.
“And that was a desperate club out there. Red Deer had a lost a few in a row and they played with some real urgency and got the result they wanted.”
Zablocki got things started just four minutes into the first, beating Royals netminder Griffen Outhouse for this 13th of the season. Scott Walford got that back for the Royals a minute later, notching his second of the season. But a power-play goal from Hagel at 13:28 of the first put the Rebels up for good.
After Zablocki had the lone second-period marker, Tyler Soy opened the third with his 20th of the season, on a shorthanded breakaway six minutes in, to give the Royals life. But five minutes later, Rebels captain Adam Musil scored to restore Red Deer’s two-goal lead and put the game on ice.
“Four games in five nights is real tough and we may have ran out of gas, but our guys toughed it out and didn’t play too badly,” Lowry said.
Outhouse was starting his 21st straight game, tying the franchise record held by Lucas Gore, but showed no signs of fatigue. The 18-year-old made 38 saves.
“Griffen was solid again,” added Lowry. “We talked and he said he felt great and he definitely wasn’t the reason we lost.”
Lasse Pederson made 21 saves to pick up the win for the Rebels.
The Royals return home briefly before heading to Langley for a Friday night tilt with the Giants.
