Edmonton, AB - The Vancouver Giants are still the team to beat in the Western Hockey League. Nobody has accomplished the feat in regulation time in 11 games so far this season including Edmonton. The Oil Kings had their hands full and fell 6 - 0 to the Western Conference leading Giants. Tyson Sexsmith made just 10 saves for his 2nd straight shutout against the Oil Kings and 21st of his career while Russian Mikael Fisenko ended up with 2 goals for the Giants who are starting a 3 game swing through the Central Division."I thought we started out competing hard," said Oil Kings Head Coach Steve Pleau. "We had 36 hits in the opening period but we weren't doing smart things with the puck, we were a little uptight there. It was a 2 nothing game, they get the third goal and it's like we folded the tent. You can't do that."
To say the Oil Kings were icing a young defense would be an understatement. Heading into the game, the third oldest defenseman is a guy that hasn't even hit his 18th birthday yet. Oil Kings Assistant Coach Rocky Thompson is a former NHL defenseman and says this defensive core has to relish the opportunity of all the extra ice time.
"I think the young guys are doing a good job. They're listening to our system, they're doing to the best of their abilities and they're getting better and they're learning. We've had a little bit of a rough stretch here, we played a very good team tonight and gave up just 31 shots. I'm happy with the progress we're making, we've got to keep their spirits up....all this experience is invaluable."
The Giants had the early jump and a lot of the credit goes to their line of Fisenko, Brendan Gallagher and Todd Kennedy. They were able to establish a forecheck down low which resulted in 2 very similar goals. On the first goal, Lance Bouma was actually in deep and fed it to Fisenko in the slot. The 18 year old Russian fought off the check of Logan Proulx and sniped one past Cam Lanigan who was starting in the place of the injured Dalyn Flette. Newly acquired Torrie Jung made the 5 hour drive from Lethbridge in the morning in time to back-up Lanigan for the game.
The second goal was Brendan Gallagher with all kinds of time to set up behind the net. He waited until Fisenko became open in the low slot. A quick pass and a quick shot and it was 2 - 0 for the visitors just about 14 minutes into the hockey game.
The Giants defense turned into the story of the game. They held Edmonton to a season low 1 shot on goal in the opening 20 minutes and kept the stifling defense going in the second not allowing a shot until 11:48 mark.
"If you look at the shots, they had a definite 'up' on us." described Oil Kings goalie Cam Lanigan. "You try not to think too much about it. You definitely glance up (at the shot clock) and kind of wonder. There's no pointing fingers, we all need to step it up, I dropped the ball on a couple of shots and it turns out they score on them. Like that slapshot goal, that's the third one that's beat me from up there. It's something I've got to go back and work on."
Vancouver added goals from Gallagher who fired a slapshot with the puck standing on end that seemed to dip in the air and fool Lanigan. Then the Giants struck on the league's leading powerplay. Evander Kane was the beneficiary of some more good work behind the net from Mike Piluso and Casey Pierro-Zabotel. Kane's team leading 10th gave Vancouver a 4 - 0 lead heading into the second intermission.
Craig Cunningham and James Henry added goals for the Giants in the third period to make the final score 6 - 0. Vancouver added to their impressive totals on the powerplay and have now scored 32 times in 66 attempts
With the regulation win, the Giants also snap their mini-slide of back to back shootout losses and improve their record to 8-0-0-3 while the Oil Kings losing streak stretches to 4 games. Next up for Edmonton will be a brief 2 game road trip in Saskatchewan with stops in Swift Current Friday and Prince Albert on Saturday.
The next home game is coming up on Tuesday October 28th when the Kootenay Ice are in town for Rodeo Night. There'll be plenty of rodeo activities throughout the building including a mechanical bull. We'll be raising money for the Edmonton Rodeo Cowboy's Benevolent Foundation.
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