The Victoria Royals were defeated 8-0 in the final leg of a three game set against the Seattle Thunderbirds at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on Tuesday.
Thunderbirds forward Nico Myatovic was the top-performer for Seattle in the win, collecting his first career hat trick, while goaltender Scott Ratzlaff stopped 21 of 21 shots on the way to recording his fifth shutout of the season.
Meanwhile, Royals starting netminder Braden Holt made 33 saves on 41 shots in the loss.
Royals General Manager and Head Coach Dan Price emphasized the importance of capitalizing on every chance given against a team as talented as Seattle:
“They converted pretty much every good chance they had,” said Price following the game. “And we didn’t convert ours…You look back on it and we had some really good chances. Breakaways, grade-A chances from the slot. Their goalie played really well…We have to do a better job of that.”
Seattle (43-4-1-1) would get out to an early 1-0 lead on a goal by forward Brad Lambert (10) at the 8:02 mark of the first.
The Thunderbirds would then increase their lead on two consecutive goals–coming six seconds apart–by defenceman Nolan Allan (9) at 15:39 and forward Mekai Sanders (4) at 15:45, bringing the score to 3-0 entering the second.
Seattle’s lead continued to grow in the second, as forward Nico Myatovic (21) made it 4-0 with a goal at the 1:06 mark, which was followed by a second goal from Lambert (11) at 5:57 to bring the score to 5-0.
The Thunderbirds would add three more in the third, with forward Reid Schaefer (20) striking at the 14:59 mark to make it 6-0 and Myatovic completing the hat trick with a pair of goals at 15:56 (22) and 18:10 (23) to give Seattle a 8-0 lead, where it would remain until the end of regulation.
The defeat moves Victoria’s record to 15-36-5-1 on the season.
Looking ahead, the Thunderbirds will return home for a contest against the Tri-City Americans in Kent, WA this Friday night.
