Victoria Royals deal Thunderbirds frustrating 6-3 loss

KENT – Finishing off a long weekend with three games in three nights, the Thunderbirds turned in an emotionless effort in a loss to Victoria on Sunday afternoon.

The Royals struck for three first period goals and never looked back as they handed Seattle a 6-3 loss at home. Victoria was led by Jack Walker’s hat trick and 28 Coleman Vollrath saves in the win.

After the game the disappointment from the T-Birds coaches and players was evident.

“We were not ready,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “Pretty loose in the locker room before the game. Even walking into meetings you could tell it was fairly loose and they were ready to play and we weren’t.”

Seattle was coming off of an intense come-from-behind win the night before in Everett, and there appeared to be a significant let down. And being tired from their third game in as many nights was no excuse Sunday as the Royals were also playing their third game in a row.

“Our game plan was to try and jump on them out the gate,” defenseman Shea Theodore said. “We knew they were coming off the bus from Kamloops, but we couldn’t do it. Just played sloppy all night.”

That sloppiness was easy to see early on. The Royals got on the board just under four minutes into the game on a scramble play in front of the Seattle net. Goalie Taran Kozun made a save, but the rebound was loose and neither Kozun nor any Seattle defender was able to get a handle on it. Austin Carroll was on the door step and banged it home for his 33rd goal of the year.

Seattle then would give up two goals to Walker, the first coming on a power play and the second late in the period when nobody checked him in the slot where he easily scored. Konowalchuk replaced Kozun with Logan Flodell at that point, but it was more a testament to the team’s play than anything Kozun had done.

“Kozun made some good saves early,” Konowalchuk said. “I was trying to get the team to wake up a little bit.”

Kozun was back in net to start the second and when Jerret Smith scored on a power play from the circle, it looked like maybe Seattle was going to get back into the game. However, more sloppy play led to Victoria’s Tyler Soy potting his 24th goal, giving the Royals their three-goal lead back.

The T-Birds once again showed some signs of life later in the period when Scott Eansor beat Vollrath with a wrist shot from the slot. That made it a 4-2 game, but a lack of concentration just before the buzzer would nearly seal the deal for the Royals.

With just over ten seconds left in the period, Alex Forsberg threw the puck on net from a tough angle. Somehow the shot managed to squeak past Kozun and in for Victoria’s fifth goal of the game. Trailing 5-2 and being outshot 29-13 after 40 minutes, the game was pretty academic after that.

For Konowalchuk, it all boiled down to his team’s lack of compete Sunday.

“At some point you would hope we would move past this and learn from it,” he said. “We have to compete every game and we didn’t compete. Even the second half of the game there were times some of our skill guys didn’t compete for pucks.”

The game had an ugly moment in the third period when Luke Osterman was hit up high by Victoria’s Ryan Gagnon. Osterman lay on the ice for several moments after the hit and had to be helped off the ice. He did not return to the game and Gagnon was given a five-minute checking to the head major along with a game misconduct. He most likely will be looking at some sort of discipline from the league.

The T-Birds did manage to score on the ensuing power play when Roberts Lipsbergs tipped in a shot from Theodore at the point, but that was as close as Seattle would get. Walker would complete his hat trick late in the third when he scored on an empty Seattle net.

In the end the weekend was a missed opportunity for the T-Birds. They had a chance to pull within one point of second-place Portland but played two lackluster games that cost them points.

“I don’t like it,” Konowalchuk said. “Again, the consistency with our compete. Kamloops game we didn’t compete like we needed to, only got one point there. Yesterday played a fairly strong game but today we didn’t compete … We’ve got to make sure these guys know the importance of every game and every shift. Apparently we thought yesterday was good enough, and it wasn’t.”

The T-Birds will now have a few days off to regroup, refocus and get ready for two home games on the coming weekend. It starts Friday night with a matchup with the Eastern Conference’s Lethbridge Hurricanes.

“We had a big opportunity to finish the weekend with five points and came out really sluggish tonight,” Theodore said. “It’s just really too bad. We’ve just got to refocus this week and get ready.”

Notes

• After the game Konowalchuk did not have a report on Osterman’s condition. Osterman had missed the three previous games.

• Walker’s hat trick was the first in the career for the defenseman from Minnesota. He has scored 15 times this year, which is the most in his three-year WHL career.

• Eansor’s second period goal was his 10th of the year and second in as many nights.

• Mathew Barzal added two assists on Sunday as the 17-year-old center continues his strong play since returning from injury. He has 14 points over his last nine games.

Follow Andrew Eide on Twitter @andyeide.

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