“We are the only ones that can do it”

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Mallette will find the answer. The problem will be solved.

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His team, which won 42 times a year ago, managed to lose seven consecutive games from March 11^th through to March 25^th before finally beating Kamloops 5-3. The team went on to win eight of their next nine to end the regular season.

Shut out by the T-Birds for the first time on the road this season, the team has scored just eight goals in their last five games.

“Nobody feels sorry for us”, Mallette added. “We are going to get out of this, but it has to take the 20 men in that room, and us as a staff, to really dig in.”

What is compounding the lack of success, specifically in the offensive zone, is the absence of three of the team’s best offensive players with Colton Dach, Gabriel Szturc and Adam Kydd unable to help their teammates dig out of this hole.

“Whether they come back on January 6^th or January 7^th, somebody else could go down, you just don’t know,” Mallette quipped. “Hockey is an unpredictable sport. We have to deal with what we’ve got in the room right now.”

While Dach and Szturc are playing for their respective countries at the world juniors, Kydd, a point a game player with 23 points in 20 games this season, is possibly a week away from returning after fracturing his foot in late November.

The absence of that trio has allowed the likes of rookies Ethan Neutens and Grady Lenton to play further up in the lineup to gain the confidence of the head coach.

“Those players that have been given those extra minutes are showcasing themselves that they are able to eat those minutes while those players are gone.”

In Saturday’s setback, solid goaltending from starter Talyn Boyko, named the third star with 33 saves, had the game scoreless through 40 minutes.

From the Rockets’ perspective, playing their fourth game in five nights, it was an ideal position before generating just four shots on the net in the third period and surrendering two goals.

The power play, which had a chance to step up in the third period and tie the game, struggled at the most inopportune time and managed to go 0 for 5 on the night.

“The detail of our game, the habits of our game are non-negotiable” Mallette added. “Those don’t take talent. If we are willing to take a hit, give one and win races back into our own zone and really sacrifice, that is the way we are going to slowly chip out of this.”

With 18 losses on the season, two shy of the total number from a season ago when winning streaks, not losing streaks were the norm, after playing against teams above them in the standings [Kamloops/Seattle] in the last four games, 9^th seed Victoria comes to town Tuesday.

“They are right there”, Mallette added, fully aware the Royals are just seven points back of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. “We have games in hand [three games], but that only goes so far. We have to get back in the right column and that isn’t going to take one or two guys, that is going to take a collective group.”