A tired Vancouver Giants were down 1-0 against Victoria Royals after 20 minutes and were trailing 4-0 after 40 minutes, before the teams exchanged third period goals on Friday night at Langley Events Centre, a game that ended in a 5-1 defeat for the home team.
Head Coach Parker Burgess said it was “not the effort we wanted.”
“I think tonight we saw some physical and mental fatigue, especially from some of the younger guys,” Burgess remarked post-game.
Ryan Lin scored the lone goal for Vancouver late in the third period off a pass from Cameron Schmidt.
Royals forward Ludovic Perreault scored a natural hat-trick.
Nolan Stewart and Caleb Matthews also scored for the Royals, in addition to the three from Perreault.
Perreault had the only goal of the opening period, scoring off a broken play at the side of the net with 7.5 seconds left in the first period.
At the 6:45 mark of the second, Perreault found the back of the net again after receiving a pass in the slot from teammate Reggie Newman.
Less than four minutes later, Perreault completed his first career WHL hat-trick when he went upstairs from the right circle, making it 3-0 midway through the second period.
Before the middle frame came to a close, Matthews scored on a great individual effort to make the score 4-0 for Victoria.
Lin scored with less than three minutes remaining in the third period to make it 4-1, before an empty-net goal from Stewart made it a 5-1 final score.
Victoria outshot Vancouver 31-17.
Vancouver falls to 15-18-1-1 following the loss, while the Royals improve to 13-11-4-3.
This was the Giants last game before the holiday break. They return on Dec. 27 at Kelowna.