VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Canadians carried this conserving power business a bit too far Wednesday.

With all three games scheduled for daylight play, the C’s have billed their current set with the Everett AquaSox as the B.C. Hydro Power Smart Nooner series. The idea is for the club to demonstrate its commitment to saving electricity by playing an entire series in the daylight hours.

But the C’s went from power smart to power outage Wednesday as the AquaSox took Game 1 by limiting the Canadians to just four hits and a single run in a 7-1 victory before a crowd of 3,159 at Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium.

The series has extra meaning, especially for the Canadians. After three consecutive losing seasons the C’s are finally in a pennant race again thanks to the new split season. The clubs came into the contest tied for first in the West in the second-half standings and riding lengthy win streaks — five games for the Canadians and seven for Everett.

C’s manager Rick Magnante agrees this is his team’s most meaningful series of the season.

“There’s definite significance to this series,” said the Vancouver skipper. “We came in tied for first. We want to establish our validity as as a team that can compete with them.”

As far as showdowns go, though, Game 1 was a bit of a flop as the AquaSox jumped on starter Anvioris Ramirez for three runs in the first inning and never looked back.

“They pitched well against us today,” credited Magnante. “And they got some timely hitting.”

To add a bit of irony to the game, the only true Canadian in action Wednesday was AquaSox third baseman Kevin Mailloux. And he did most of the offensive damage for Everett with a pair of homers and three RBI.

A native of Tecumseh, Ont., Mailloux has been on a tear lately. This was his third two-homer game in his last four outings. He now has 10 homers on the season, but six of them coming in less than a week.

A 45th-round pick of the Seattle Mariners in 2009, Mailloux spent most of last season in the Arizona Rookie League, earning a late-season promotion to the AquaSox. This year he’s been with Everett all season.

“I’m really more of a gap hitter, but I’m happy and hope those homers keep coming,” he said. “I’m glad to be back in Canada. I’m a proud Canadian. It’s good to hear those “eh” sounds again.”

The C’s got their lone run in the sixth inning on a RBI single by centre fielder Michael Choice. It was the first RBI as a pro for Oakland’s first pick in this year’s June draft.

C NOTES: For this series the Canadians are wearing throw-back Vancouver Mounties uniforms from the 1960s that will be auctioned off for charity at the conclusion of play Friday … The C’s next Movie Night at The Nat goes Saturday at 7 p.m. when the club plans to show The Lion King on its new Diamond Vision scoreboard. Parking and admission are free.

llittle@vancouversun.com