Former teammate’s late goal extends Vancouver Giants’ losing streak to four games

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Former Giants forward Evan Patrician scores the winner for Victoria Royals with 12.8 seconds remaining, ending his 12-game losing streak in the process.

Author of the article:

Steve Ewen

Zack Ostapchuk of the Vancouver Giants tries to beat Victoria Royals goalkeeper Tyler Palmer on Saturday at the Langley Events Center.
Zack Ostapchuk of the Vancouver Giants tries to beat Victoria Royals goalkeeper Tyler Palmer on Saturday at the Langley Events Center. Photo by Rob Wilton

The Vancouver Giants’ losing streak is up to four games courtesy of former Giants forward Evan Patrician.

Patrician took a shot off the back wall and then backhanded his own rebound with 12.8 seconds remaining to give the Victoria Royals a 3-2 win over the Giants Saturday night at Langley Events Center.

Vancouver (7-7-1-0) has not won since a 5-3 decision in the second half of a road doubleheader against Prince George Cougars on Nov. 10. They have lost five out of six.

They are two points behind the Kelowna Rockets (8-4-0-1) for fifth place in the Western Conference and the Rockets have two games in hand.

Patrician’s account helped Victoria (2-11-2-0) end a 12-game losing streak (0-10-2-0). They landed Patrician, a 20-year-old center from Calgary from the Saskatoon Blades for a conditional eight-round pick of the 2022 WHL draft on October 7.

Patrician played 95 regular-season games over four seasons with Vancouver and was a deep forward in the 2019 playoff race. He was traded to Saskatoon on the 2020 trade deadline in the Eric Florchuk trade.

“They took advantage of that last minute, which should never happen, but it did happen,” Giants coach Michael Dyck said after the Royals.

On the current slide, Dyck said, “We have to go through that. You can not avoid it. We have to move on. That is all. We are having a bit of calm here. “

The Giants will go on the road next week, visiting the Portland Winterhawks on Wednesday, the Tri-City Americans on Friday and the Spokane Chiefs on Saturday. That will mark Vancouver’s first games in the US since a February 22, 2020 contest against the Everett Silvertips due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s an opportunity to come together and work our way out of this,” Dyck said.

Fabian Lysell, with his fourth of the season, and Justin Sourdif, with his six, scored goals for Vancouver. Tarun Fizer, with the first, and Bailey Peach, with the third, also scored for Victoria. It was Patrician’s first of the season.

Will Gurski made 21 saves at Vancouver’s net. Tyler Palmer did the same in Victoria’s cage.

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Reference-theprovince.com

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