One thing’s for certain, the Victoria Royals are happy to see the last of the Alberta teams this season.
For the second straight game, the Royals had trouble with a team from the Wild Rose province. This time the surging Red Deer Rebels were the thorn in their side, handing the home team a 4-3 loss at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. Two nights after losing in a shootout to the Edmonton Oil Kings, the Royals are staring at a three-game winless skid.
“Our start was strong this time and the shot total showed that. And had we got up a couple of goals early, the game likely would have been different,” said Royals head coach Dan Price, who saw his team drop to 29-18-4-3 on the season.
“So the energy was there at the start, we just weren’t rewarded. And that’s no disrespect to Red Deer. They played a great game.”
The Rebels are a team on a mission. Brent Sutter’s team came into the night 10 points out of a playoff spot, but have now picked up wins against the top two teams in the B.C. Division and are 8-2 in their last 10 games.
“They’re a good team that’s playing really well right now,” Price said.
After Royals captain Matthew Phillips opened the scoring with his 44th of the season with six minutes remaining in the first, the Rebels’ offence went to work, scoring the next three on Royals netminder Dean McNabb. Czech Republic native Kristian Reichel, ranked 80th among North American skaters for this summer’s NHL draft, got it started with a one-timer on the power play with just 1:17 left in the opening frame.
Then it was Mason McCarty and Brandon Cutler, 1:30 apart midway through the second, that looked to put the Rebels in the driver’s seat. But with eight seconds left in the middle period, defenceman Kade Jensen banked one off Rebels goalie Riley Lamb just as a power play was ending, and the Royals had the 4,217 fans in the building back in the game.
And when Lane Zablocki buried his 13th of the season six minutes into the third, it looked like the Royals had taken back control. But the desperate Rebels wouldn’t go away, and with 7:17 left in the third, Chris Douglas fired a shot from in close past McNabb to send Red Deer on its way.
McNabb finished with 23 saves, many of the difficult variety. The rookie got the start in place of veteran Griffen Outhouse, who is still nursing nagging injuries. “I thought Dean played well, made some big saves — and he’s getting more and more confidence the more he plays,” Price said.
The loss was costly for the Royals as both the Kelowna Rockets in front of them and Vancouver Giants, just behind them in the division, won on Friday. The Rockets moved two points up on Victoria and have two games in hand, while the Giants moved to within three points of the Royals and have three games in hand.
And it’s those Giants, with 50-goal man Ty Ronning, who will be at the Memorial Centre tonight for a 7 p.m. contest.
SLAP SHOTS: Royals defenceman Ralph Jarratt sat out his second straight game with an undisclosed injury. … After tonight’s game against the Giants, the Royals’ homestand continues next Friday and Saturday when the Portland Winterhawks come to town for a doubleheader.
