For the third game in a row, the Victoria Royals worked hard against an elite Western Hockey League team with nothing to show for it. Talent will win out, as it did for the Moose Jaw Warriors on Friday night in a 4-0 victory, just as it did for Everett and Vancouver in Victoria's two previous defeats.
It didn’t feel like a four-goal blowout before 5,409 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. But good teams make the most of their chances, as the defending league regular-season champion Warriors moved to 24-11-7. The Royals dropped to 22-18-1 as their former four-game winning streak has swung to a three-game losing skid.
There are few more potent forwards in the league this season than Moose Jaw's Tristan Langan, who scored the natural hat-trick in the second period. The over-age 20-year-old has 36 goals and 74 points.
Back on the Warriors’ blue line, there is no better one-two punch in the WHL than second-round Montreal Canadiens draft pick Josh Brook and second-round Vancouver Canucks selection Jet Woo. For the latter it was a visit to the Blanshard Street location where his father, Larry Woo, skated in the old Memorial Arena.
Despite that forbidding Warriors defensive duo, Victoria dominated the first 15 minutes with a well-earned 11-2 shots advantage but could not find the finishing against Moose Jaw goaltender Adam Evanoff, who recorded a 28-save shutout.
Those missed quality chances would come back to haunt the Royals as a true finisher, Langan, put the Warriors up 3-0 in the second period.
The Royals led 23-19 in shots after two periods but were down by a field goal on the part of the scoreboard that really matters.
The Royals, in their second consecutive three-games-in-three-days weekend, are in Kent, Washington, tonight to face the Seattle Thunderbirds before heading up I-5 to finish off Sunday afternoon in Everett against the Western Conference-leading Silvertips.
The Royals then have their second straight one-off home game against a WHL Eastern Conference rival as the CHL top-ranked Prince Albert Raiders — featuring former Victoria GM and head coach Marc Habscheid and former Royals forwards Dante Hannoun and Noah Gregor — skate onto Blanshard.
