VICTORIA -- The wheels started falling off the Prince George Cougars' wagon in the third period.
The Victoria Royals forced the sputtering Cougars into the ditch Friday night in Victoria, reeling off four unanswered goals in the final frame to give themselves a 6-2 victory.
Alex Forsberg and Matthew Phillips scored their second goals of the night and Jack Walker (on a 4-on-4) and Tyler Soy (shorthanded) added beauties on breakaways to break open a 2-2 tie after two periods before 5,832 fans at the Memorial Centre.
The Royals improve to 46-16-3-3 overall and 24-6-1-3 at home.
"You never know what you're going to get on the road so you always have to lock it down at home," said Forsberg, who tallied twice and had one assist against his former team. "We've done a really good job of that, especially in the second half here. And our crowds have been fantastic and it's really fun to play in front of."
Forsberg's second of the evening was the game-winner at 2:29 of the third. Walker, Phillips and then Tyler Soy, with his team-high 41st, all tallied within 3:01 in the middle of the last frame.
"That's something we pride ourselves on this year and it's something that's going to be a key going into the playoffs," Walker added of the team's home record.
The opening two goals of the game came from players tallying against their former teams.
Luke Harrison wasted little time snapping in the first goal for Prince George as he beat Coleman Vollrath just 42 seconds in. Forsberg got that one back for Victoria at 12:50 of the first as he finished off a nifty three-way passing play with Dante Hannoun and Chaz Reddekopp that forced Cougars' goalie Ty Edmonds out of position.
Prince George restored its lead at 6:24 of the second as Tate Olson's point shot slipped through a screened Vollrath. Phillips, the Royals' rookie sensation, pounced on a loose puck on a power play to tie it back up at 2-2 at 13:06 of the middle frame.
Edmonds was a busy netminder facing 45 shots overall while Vollrath had 27 fired his way.
The game was up for grabs after 40 minutes, despite Victoria outshooting the visitors 34-16.
"I thought after 40 minutes it was an equal game for both sides, and going into the third we wanted to make a push to come out with a 'W' in this game," said Cougars assistant coach Roman Vopat. "But all of a sudden we switch on a dumb button and we stop skating -- we got outplayed, outhustled, outworked and we took dumb penalties and they scored four goals."
Penalties hurt the Cougars, the most-penalized team in the WHL. The Royals scored on two of their five power-play chances, while the Cougars went 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
"We prepare the players as best we can and it's up to them to execute," said Vopat. "When your best players are the worst players and they don't execute on the power play -- I always say power plays and (penalty-killing) win you games -- and they scored two on our PKs and we didn't score any on power plays and that was the difference in the game."
The same teams meet in a rematch Sunday at noon.
Friday's loss, combined with the Kamloops Blazers' 4-3 overtime win over the Kelowna Rockets Friday in Kelowna, dropped the Cougars (36-28-3-2) into fourth place in the B.C. Division, two points behind the third-place Blazers (35-25-5-4). The Royals (46-16-3-3) have now won nine straight and are four points ahead of the Rockets.
The Cougars now hold the second wildcard spot. If the playoffs started today they would open on the road against the U.S. Division-leading Seattle Thunderbirds.
LOOSE PUCKS: In his 300th WHL game, Cougars winger Chase Witala assisted on Olson's goal to improve on his franchise record for points. He now has 238 points... Sunday's game will be broadcast live nationally on Sportsnet 360.
