MOOSE JAW 4
VICTORIA 3 (SO)
A familiar shortcoming of the Victoria Royals an inability to put together a full 60 minutes came back to torment the Western Hockey League club Tuesday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The Royals, leading the Moose Jaw Warriors 3-1 with less than 10 minutes to play in the third period, suffered collapse in losing 4-3 in a shootout before an announced crowd of 4,385.
Assistant captain Tim Traber, returning from injury to the Royals line-up for the first time in six games, outraced Moose Jaw defenceman and 2012 fifth overall NHL draft pick Morgan Rielly to the puck to make it 3-1 at 13:14 of the third period and the Royals seemed to be in solid shape.
But a power-play goal by Justin Kirsch at 16:05 and then captain Braydon Points ping-in off the crossbar with 1:04 left in regulation time both goals assisted by Toronto Maple Leafs pick Rielly tied it 3-3 for Moose Jaw.
Jordan Messier, in the fourth round of the shootout, won it for the Warriors.
We keep shooting ourselves in the foot, said Traber.
We played 40 minutes of hockey tonight. Thats going to kill us. Thats going to kill any hockey team, from junior to minor-pro to the NHL. Weve got to bear down better than that and our best players have to be our best players, especially down the stretch.
Moose Jaw made its first visit to Victoria, since the return of the WHL to the B.C. capital last season, a winning one. The last time the Warriors skated on Blanshard Street in the 1993-94 WHL season at the old Memorial Arena, they were destined to finish last in the East Division despite boasting 50-goal scorer and future NHLer Ryan Smyth. The Moose Jaw franchise will be looking for a better fate 18 years later, as last seasons Eastern Conference finalists moved to 9-11-7 and snapped a four-game winless streak.
The Royals are now
13-12-1.
Perhaps inspired by fellow countryman and Czech national soccer team and Chelsea goaltkeeper Petr Cech, Royals goalie Patrik Polivka purposely headed a high floating puck into the corner off the top of his mask in the second period. The crowd got a kick out of that. But the rest of the night wasnt as bemusing for Polivka or the Victoria fans.
They [Warriors] played better than us in the last 10 minutes, said Polivka, who was working on a shutout with less than 10 minutes remaining in regulation before Travis Brown pulled Moose Jaw to within 2-1 at 10:27 of the third period.
We need to do better than that, added Polivka, who was kept extremely busy with 37 Warrior shots.
The Royals managed 22 shots on rookie Moose Jaw goaltender Daniel Wapple.
A Brandon Magee laser to the top of the net exactly seven minutes into the game made it 1-0 for Victoria. Alex Gogolev, with his Royals-leading 30th point of the season, pushed the advantage to two goals on the power play at 1:20 of the second period to extend his league second-best points-scoring streak to consecutive 10 games.
Gogolev, however, went on to miss several excellent ensuing scoring chances and the Royals would rue that.
Weve got to learn to close these games out, said Victoria head coach Dave Lowry. But were a young team learning how to win and will continue to work to get better. And give them [Moose Jaw] some credit. They kept playing for the full 60 minutes.
The Royals are in Prince George to play the Cougars on Friday and Saturday nights.
