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WHL Vancouver Giants

Discipline Biggest Factor in Giants' Loss to Seattle

February 1, 2025 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Vancouver Giants News Release


Seattle Thunderbirds' Kaleb Hartmann and Vancouver Giants' Maxim Muranov in action
Seattle Thunderbirds' Kaleb Hartmann and Vancouver Giants' Maxim Muranov in action
(Vancouver Giants)

Seattle, WA - The Vancouver Giants lost 5-2 to the Seattle Thunderbirds on Friday night at the accesso ShoWare Center in a game where the Thunderbirds went 3-for-8 on the power play.

The loss drops Vancouver's record this season to 23-18-6, while Seattle improves to 17-27-2-1.

London Hoilett (4th) and Jaden Lipinski (8th) each scored for Vancouver, while Burke Hood made 31 saves.

Antonio Martorana registered his first career hat-trick for Seattle, while Nathan Pilling and Braeden Cootes also scored.

The Thunderbirds struck first less than two minutes in, when Dunn found Martorana all alone in front of the net, who slid it home for his ninth goal of the season.

Vancouver responded less than three minutes later on a tremendous individual effort from Hoilett, who stripped the puck off defenceman Tai Riley outside the Thunderbirds blue line, re-entered the zone with the puck on the left wing and proceeded to drive the net and chip the puck to the top shelf.

The Giants grabbed their first lead of the game midway through the second period, when Halaburda found Lipinski in a soft spot in the slot on the power play to make the score 2-1.

The Thunderbirds responded with a power play goal of their own before the second period expired, when Pilling chipped in a backhand off a rebound created by Dunn.

In the third period, Seattle scored on consecutive power plays, first when Cootes one-timed a shot from the top of the left circle to make it 3-2 and then Martorana on a deflection to make it 4-2 at 10:18 of the third period.

Martorana completed the hat-trick with four minutes remaining to make the final score 5-2. THEY SAID IT

"Discipline played a big part in the game tonight. The issue we have is it's a lot of preventable penalties. If we're using our legs, we're not slashing, hooking, all that stuff, stick work, high sticks. We weren't disciplined through our game and it just kills momentum. The bench gets smaller - we've talked about that. Your'e not going to go through a game taking eight or nine penalties - it doesn't give you a good chance to win. Again, it just killed our momentum and our flow to the game tonight." - Giants Associate Coach Adam Maglio on the game overall

"Didn't mind the 5-on-5 play, but there wasn't nearly enough of it. Certainly between periods we addressed penalties. We've got to do a better job committing to a team game. When we take undisciplined penalties, you're hurting your teammates, right? And I think that's something we've got to learn and take out of this one tonight. I'm not going to say it was uncharacteristic, but there haven't been a lot of games where we're taking eight or nine penalties. These are big games down here, especially with what happened last time we were here." - Giants Associate Coach Adam Maglio STATISTICS

SOG : VAN - 9/7/9 = 25 | SEA - 10/12/14 = 36

PP: VAN- 1/5 | SEA - 3 /8

Face-Offs: VAN - 29 | SEA - 36 3 STARS

1st: SEA - Antonio Martorana - 3G, 8 SOG, +2

2nd: SEA - Coster Dunn - 3A, 4 SOG, +1

3rd: SEA - Braeden Cootes - 1G, 1A, 5 SOG GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver : LOSS - Burke Hood (31 saves / 36 shots)

Seattle: WIN - Scott Ratzlaff (23 saves / 25 shots) UPCOMING

Date Opponent Time Location

Saturday, February 1 Kamloops 7:00 PM PST Langley Events Centre

Sunday, February 2 Spokane 4:00 PM PST Langley Events Centre

Friday, February 7 Portland 7:00 PM PST Langley Events Centre

The Giants have two upcoming home games this weekend: Saturday, February 1 at 7 PM vs. Kamloops and Sunday, February 2 at 4 PM vs. Spokane. Head to VancouverGiants.com/tickets for more details or call 604-4-GIANTS.

Check out the Vancouver Giants Statistics




Images from this story

Seattle Thunderbirds' Kaleb Hartmann and Vancouver Giants' Maxim Muranov in action
Seattle Thunderbirds' Kaleb Hartmann and Vancouver Giants' Maxim Muranov in action
   

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