Up 5-4 after 40 minutes, the Langley Thunder surrendered five goals in the final 20 minutes to drop a second straight game.
The Thunder lost 9-7 to the Maple Ridge Burrards at Planet Ice on June 9.
“We played a pretty good overall game,” said Langley assistant coach Darcy Rhodes.
“It was anyone’s game in the third period and they came out a little hungrier than we did.”
Pat Saunders (four goals, one assist) and Lewis Ratcliff (one goal, four assists) paced the Thunder attack with five-point games. Athan Iannucci had three assists while Jacob Ruest and Alex Turner had the other Langley goals.
Saunders leads the league with 22 points through five games.
Langley (2-3) will look to get back on track when they host the Victoria Shamrocks on June 10 at the Langley Events Centre. Game time is 7 p.m.
“It’s always a good test playing the defending champions,” said Rhodes.
“They’ve got a heck of a team over there and we’re excited to see how we match up against them. We’ve got a good group of guys who are capable of scoring a flurry of goals and our goaltending has been pretty good so far; I’m looking forward to it.”
Victoria has outscored opponents 36-22 during their winning streak, defeating Maple Ridge twice along with a victory over the Burnaby Lakers.