“Our guys are heart-broken right now in that room,” said Royals head coach James Patrick, following the game.
It had all the feel of a playoff game, which was only appropriate, since it might be an opening-round post-season match-up in the WHL Western Conference beginning March 29. The 5,472 fans, among the largest turnouts of the season at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, gave it a further playoff atmosphere. Well, at least for two periods, as the Everett Silvertips ripped home five unanswered goals in the third period in a 6-2 victory over the Royals on Saturday night.
“They put everything into it for two periods. We were hanging around the game . How quickly it turned on us. The turning moment was Everett’s power-play goal 21 seconds into the third period . And then they get another less than a minute later. That really hurts you. We knew they were going to have a big push in the third period and we talked about how important the first five minutes were.”
“That was definitely a part of it,” said Chaloner, a rookie centre whose first goal came in his 45th WHL game.“We have big losses in the line-up of big-impact guys. Everyone needs to step up and take responsibility to fill the holes in the roster,” said Chaloner.Everett outshot Victoria 44-20 in a battle of goaltenders – Braden Holt of the Royals and Tyler Palmer of the Silvertips —who were traded for each other last season.