A rough Prairie road trip for the Victoria Royals has seen their lead in the B.C. Division of the Western Hockey League trimmed to a mere two points.
The Royals (18-10-3-0), who are gearing up for their return to the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre this Friday for a game against Kootenay Ice (7:05 p.m.), lost all four games in Saskatchewan and Alberta, two of which came in overtime.
The latest was a 4-1 decision Saturday in Lethbridge, where the visitors fell behind early and never got untracked. Victoria goalie Griffen Outhouse posted an admirable performance in the loss, stopping 40 of 43 shots – the final Hurricanes goal was scored into an empty net.
Dante Hannoun had the lone tally for the Royals, bagging his 13th of the season early in the third period.
Other losses on the road trip saw the Royals lose 4-3 in overtime in Medicine Hat on Friday, 3-2 in OT to Swift Current on Nov. 29 and 7-4 in Medicine Hat the night before.
Meanwhile, the Kelowna Rockets (17-8-2-1) have been on a tear of late, winning five straight and going 8-2 in their last 10 games to pull within two points of the Royals.