Royals open long road trip in Spokane

The No. 1 national seeding the Victoria Royals were handed earlier this week seems to have weighed the Western Hockey League team down.

Victoria lost for the second straight game and just the first time in regulation as the Royals dropped a frantic 8-6 decision to the Spokane Chiefs on Friday night at Veterans Memorial Arena. That followed Wednesday’s 5-4 overtime defeat to Tri-City.

After Regan Nagy collected his eighth goal in the last five games 4:14 in for the visitors, the Chiefs rebounded with four goals in just 2:38 starting at 10:12 of the opening frame. It was a wild first period which included a spirited fight between Royals defenceman Ralph Jarratt and Riley McKay at 5:03.

“Offensively, we actually did a lot of good things, but defensively we weren’t as good as we need to be, whether that be at home or on the road,” said Royals head coach Dan Price. “We talked about that as a team and that’s something we’ll address [today] and clean up. We need to play harder away from the puck and around the puck, physically and with our sticks.”

Jake McGrew with his first WHL hat-trick, Hayden Ostir (with a pair) and Riley Woods, Eli Zummack and Jaret Anderson-Dolan scored for Spokane, which led 4-2 and 6-4 by periods.

Nagy, Eric Florchuk (with a pair), Chaz Reddekopp, Matthew Phillips and Tyler Soy replied for the Royals, who head to Seattle tonight to face the defending league-champion Thunderbirds (4-2-0-1).

Starting netminder Griffen Outhouse was pulled after allowing seven goals on 30 shots, replaced by Dean McNabb, who faced 10 shots in the Victoria net. Dawson Weatherill made 20 saves for Spokane.

The Royals came into the game with a plus-28 differential in goals for and against, while the Chiefs entered the fray on a three-game losing streak, having dropped three straight to the Portland Winterhawks. Spokane was outscored by a whopping 16-3 margin in those three defeats.

It mattered not on this evening, as the hosts turned the tables on the high-scoring Royals, who will obviously lose that No. 1 Canadian Hockey League ranking next week as the No. 2 Swift Current Broncos improved to 8-0 with a 1-0 win over Vancouver on Friday.