Victoria Grizzlies defenceman Jeff Forsythe spent half Saturday night reflecting on a giveaway that cost his team their opening game at the RBC Cup.

Last night, he made up for it. Forsythe scored the first two goals of the game, and added an assist, as the host team shutout the Kingston Kimco Voyageurs 5-0 in front of 1,484 fans at Bear Mountain Arena.

“I was pretty upset. I had to come out and play hard,” Forsythe said. “I just wanted to keep it simple, and get the pucks out, and get them toward the net.

“When you keep it simple, that’s when good things happen.”

The Grizzlies countered the demoralizing opening loss to the Humboldt Broncos — Humboldt scored the 2-1 winner with one second left on the clock — by spending most of the first period firing missiles at Shawn Sirman in the Kingston net.

Picking off the puck, the Grizzlies broke out of the neutral zone on several occasions. They were rewarded when Forsythe scored, unassisted, at 4:57, although the Voyageurs weren’t without their chances.

In the early going, Grizzlies D-man Sam Higgins flicked the puck to safety before it dribbled over the line behind goaltender Anthony Grieco. Then, just before the buzzer, a blast of pressure very nearly produced the tying goal for a team that’s had to be resilient through a postseason lasting nearly three months. Last night was Kingston’s 30th playoff game.

“It’s a challenge of a large proportion to get through the Ontario league,” said Kingston coach Evan Robinson, whose young team won five best-of-seven playoff series, and followed up by winning the Dudley Hewitt Cup tournament. “Not to take anything away from Victoria, but mentally, we looked really tired tonight, and it was disappointing.”