Raiders rally past road-weary Royals

Although they lived together happily at Buckingham Palace, Queen Victoria’s and Prince Albert’s namesake Canadian cities couldn’t be more far-flung from each other in the Western Hockey League. Other than Brandon, Prince Albert is the WHL city most distant from Victoria. So the Royals have plenty of time and asphalt — 1,733-kilometres over 18 hours to Tsawwassen followed by a ferry ride — to mull over a seven-game road trip that ended with a 3-4 record following Wednesday night’s 4-3 loss to the Raiders before 1,842 fans at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert.

“A busy schedule on the road is always a tough challenge. There were good and bad things about the road swing, for sure,” said Royals head coach Dan Price.

The latter included Victoria’s lack of a slayer instinct in the late going. The Royals (10-4-1) were unable to hold a second-period lead for the third time in four games as the Raiders entered the third period trailing 2-1.

“It’s definitely an important step to learn to close out games in the third period,” said Price.

“That cliché about playing the full 60 minutes is valid and holds true. Even 58-59 minutes is not enough. [Some of Victoria’s losses on the trip] were the result of just two minutes, two shifts, that were not played well.”

Price went with backup Dean McNabb in the nets against the Raiders and the rookie responded with 33 saves and certainly couldn’t be faulted for the loss.

“It’s about managing and sharing the minutes and [starter Griffen Outhouse] got some rest,” said Price.

Victoria put only 23 shots on six-foot-three Prince Albert goaltender Ian Scott, a fourth-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Regan Nagy, with his league second-leading 14th goal, Tyler Soy and Igor Martynov scored for Victoria. Matthew Phillips recorded an assist to extend his points streak to 15 games and set a new franchise record.

Max Martin scored the winning goal at 10:43 of the third period for the youthful Raiders (5-4-3), who are coached by former Royals GM and bench boss Marc Habscheid.

The Royals return to Blanshard — after the two-week, 6,123-kilometre trek through Washington state and four provinces — for a two-game home set against the B.C. Division-rival Vancouver Giants on Saturday and Sunday.