The Victoria Royals kept the score tight for much of the game, but dropped the second half of a road doubleheader, 4-1 against the Prince George Cougars on Wednesday.
Similar to the previous day’s game, the Royals fell behind early, with Cougars centre Koehn Ziemmer continuing to cause trouble for the visitors.
After a two-goal performance in Tuesday’s 5-3 Prince George win, Ziemmer repeated that feat Wednesday, scoring twice in the first period to put the Cougars ahead 2-0 after 20 minutes.
The Royals kept much of the play in Prince George’s end in the first half of the second period, but couldn’t beat Cougars netminder Ty Young. Victoria got on the board when Brayden Schuurman brought the puck in on the left side and let a shot go from the top of the circle – beating Young over his left shoulder to make it 2-1.
Neither team would score again until the game’s final 30 seconds, when Prince George added two empty-net goals for a final score of 4-1.
“That was an excellent hockey game tonight between two very depleted teams who both worked hard. Credit to Prince George for capitalizing on their chances and making several key shot blocks with the lead,” Royals head coach Dan Price said. “Both goalies were very good tonight, too. We’re looking forward to getting back to Victoria and preparing for Vancouver and Everett.”
Victoria (12-18-4-0) is scheduled to play its first home game of 2022 on Friday (Jan. 21), taking on the Vancouver Giants at 7:05 p.m. at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
The Everett Silvertips, who continue to lead the Western Conference as they did back on Nov. 26 when beaten 4-3 in overtime by the then-last place Royals, return to Victoria for a rematch this Saturday night at 7:05 p.m.
READ: Highlight-worthy goal in final seconds not enough for Victoria Royals to top Prince George
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