Vancouver BC - Don Hay collects career win 400 as the Vancouver Giants
defeated the Brandon Wheat Kings 4-3.The Giants and Wheat Kings put on a good show for the 7536 fans at the Pacific Coliseum. After a scoreless first period, the Giants opened up the second with the same intensity. Jonathon Blum was able to spot Craig Cunningham behind the Brandon defence. Cunningham skated in on Brandon goalie Andrew Hayes and beat the net minder with a forehand to backhand deke to open the scoring at 50 seconds. For Cunningham, it was his sixth goal of the season and extended his WHL leading goal scoring streak to five games.
Minutes later, with the Giants applying tremendous pressure, Evander Kane was able to convert a Mike Berube rebound to double the Giants lead. For Kane, it was his team leading 11th goal of the season and also extended his WHL point streak to a league leading 15 games. The Giants would outshoot the Wheat Kings 20-4 in the period and take a 2-0 lead to the final period.
In period three, the Giants would take advantage of a Wheat Kings miscue. Wheaties goalie Andrew Hayes was attempting to advance the puck up ice when he put it instead on the stick of Mike Piluso. Piluso made no mistake, lifting his shot high blocker side on Hayes to make the score 3-0.
After a Colby Robak goal to bring the Wheat Kings to within two, Evander Kane was able to create an opportunity on the rush to extend the lead to 4-1. Kane from the left wing rifled a slap shot at Hayes, with a big rebound kicked out right to line mate Casey Pierro-Zabotel. Casey would make Hayes pay, slamming home the rebound to make it 4-1. Mark Stone and Andrew Clark would add late goals to make things interesting, but the Giants would hang on to win 4-3 and extend their streak of being unbeaten in regulation to 15 games, (12-0-0-3).
Tyson Sexsmith would pick up the win for Vancouver, seeing his record improve to 8-0-0-2. Hayes would fall to 6-4.
For Coach Hay, he becomes the 9th coach to reach 400 wins in his WHL career. The Giants are now 12-0-0-3 on the season and move to 27 points on the season, four points clear of Spokane Chiefs for first in the WHL's Western Conference.
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