For just the third time this season the Cougars dropped a game to a B.C. Division opponent. Tyler Soy had three goals and an assist and Griffen Outhouse turned aside 42 shots to help guide the Victoria Royals to a 5-1 victory over the Cougars. Brad Morrison had the Cougars lone goal which came at 8:31 of the second period. The loss snapped a five game winning streak for the Cougars.
Just a minute and 18 seconds into the game Matthew Phillips fired his 25th of the season past Cougars starter Ty Edmonds to stake the Royals to a 1-0 lead. The Cougars outshot the Royals 13-8 in the first but trailed 1-0 at the break.
At 7:31 of the second Tyler Soy increased the Royals lead to 2-0 when he converted on his first of three on the night from in close. It was Soy’s first game back with the Royals after missing 13 straight with an injury.
Exactly one minute after Soy’s 2-0 goal the Cougars responded when Brad Morrison took a Jansen Harkins pass in the slot and wired home his 16th of the season to put the Cougars on the board.
Late in the second though the Royals restored their two goal cushion when Tyler Soy maneuvered his way through the Cougars defense and deked out Ty Edmonds for his 14th. Despite being outshot 24-17 through 40 minutes the Cougars went into the final period trailing 3-1.
Soy completed his hat-trick just 28 seconds into the third period when he deflected home a Chaz Reddekopp shot from the left point to make it 4-1. Reddekopp would add a marker of his own at 15:13 to round out the scoring and solidify the Royals 5-1 win.
Between the pipes Griffen Outhouse made 42 saves on 43 shots faced while Ty Edmonds made 19 saves on 24 shots faced. The Cougars power play finished zero-for-four while the Cougars went one-for-0ne on the penalty kill.
With the loss the Cougars record now sits at 26-9-2-0 and their division lead is now at six points ahead of the Kelowna Rockets. Luckily the Cougars won’t have to wait long for a shot at revenge as the Cougars and Royals meet again on Wednesday night at the Save on Foods Memorial Centre.