Sports stats



WHL Vancouver Giants

Giants Edge Blazers 3-1; Hop Royals for 6th Place

March 16, 2024 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Vancouver Giants News Release


Vancouver Giants' Kyren Gronick battles Victoria Royals' Justin Kipkie and Reggie Newman
Vancouver Giants' Kyren Gronick battles Victoria Royals' Justin Kipkie and Reggie Newman
(Vancouver Giants, Credit: Rob Wilton)

Langley, B.C. - The Vancouver Giants made a move up the standings on Friday night, hopping the Victoria Royals for sixth place in the Western Conference following a 3-1 win over the Kamloops Blazers at the Langley Events Centre.

The game was knotted 1-1 for much of the night, until Ty Halaburda's go-ahead goal with just 4:21 left in regulation, which was his 21st tally of the season. Jaden Lipinski (21st) and Connor Levis (22nd, empty-net goal) also scored in the win.

Brett Mirwald was fabulous yet again in the victory, stopping 33 of 34 shots, including a flurry of action in the final minutes with the goaltender pulled for the extra attacker. The Saskatoon, Sask. product is now 14-3-2 in his last 19 games.

The Giants carry an overall record of 31-29-4-0 (66 points), which places them one point behind the fifth-place Kelowna Rockets (67 points), with a game in hand. The Giants have four games left on the schedule and finish the season with a home-and-home against the Rockets on March 22 and 23.

The lone Blazers goal came from rookie Max Sullivan, his third of the year.

GAME SUMMARY

The Blazers came out with a ton of energy on Friday and set the tone early on.

They were rewarded for their hard work at the 5:23 mark of the opening period, when Connor Radke connected with Sullivan on a 2-on-1, who beat Mirwald on the stick side with a wrist shot from the slot.

It took Vancouver several minutes after that to get going, and late in the period - after a couple consecutive shifts on play in the o-zone - Tyson Zimmer fed a pass from behind the net to Lipinski, who quickly potted it top shelf from the side of the goal to tie the game at one.

The game would remain tied 1-1 through the entire second period, much in part thanks to strong goaltending from both Mirwald and Edmonstone.

The Giants stuck with their game in the third period and didn't get rattled, eventually finding the go-ahead goal after a smart play from Leslie to drive wide and circle the net, before throwing a puck towards the slot, which eventually landing right for Halaburda at the far post, who made no mistake.

With the Blazers goalie out, Mirwald would have to make some big time stops to keep the game at 2-1, but Levis scored into the empty net, making it a 3-1 final score.

THEY SAID IT

"It was a tough game. Kamloops - give them credit - they came in, they worked hard, they're always structured. You've got to earn everyhting against them. They give you nothing for free. They came after us at the very beginning and got out to an early lead and made it pretty difficult for us, but I thought after the 10-minute mark of the first period, we kind of got our legs going again and then we started creating some chances from our forecheck and then we settled in. Second period I thought we were fine. I thought the third period was fine too. We had a lot of good looks tonight. We just weren't sharp in that area as far as finishing wise, but as far as Grade-A chances, we had a lot of them tonight." - Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the game overall

"I liked the way our kids responded after the second period. Like I said, we had some really good chances and they were the ones that said themselves, 'let's calm down a little bit,' and we were getting a little frustrated because we had some really good looks and were weren't finishing. So you could see the kids were getting a little bit frustrated, but they calmed themselves down and they were saying the right things and doing the right things by continuing to keep playing. Going into the third period it was still a 1-1 hockey game and we were able to get the job down." - Head Coach Manny Viveiros

"We're building towards the first round of the playoffs. Obviously we don't know who we're playing against and we still have, as a group, our goal is fifth place. That's something we want here. Our kids treated this today, and all week long, like a playoff game for us tonight. You can see with the intensity that our kids had and a little bit of nervousness also in the first period too. Our kids wanted this game real bad and we knew it wasn't going to be easy against Kamloops, because like I said before, they give you nothing for free. You have to work for everything and we stuck with it. That was the positive part, which also leads to that process too." - Head Coach Manny Viveiros

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN - 12/15/10 = 37 | KAM - 12/9/13 = 34

PP: VAN- 0/3 | KAM - 0/2

Face-Offs: VAN - 40 | KAM - 28

3 STARS

1st: VAN - Brett Mirwald - 33 Saves on 34 Shots

2nd: VAN - Ty Halaburda - GWG, 1A, 4 SOG, +2

3rd: KAM - Logan Edmonstone - 34 Saves on 36 Shots

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: WIN - Brett Mirwald (33 saves / 34 shots)

Kamloops: Loss - Logan Edmonstone (34 saves / 36 shots)

NEXT GAME:

The Giants hit the road for a rematch with Kamloops tomorrow (Saturday) at 6 p.m., before wrapping up the 3-in-3 on Sunday, when they'll host Prince George at 4 p.m.

Check out the Vancouver Giants Statistics




Images from this story

Vancouver Giants' Kyren Gronick battles Victoria Royals' Justin Kipkie and Reggie Newman
Vancouver Giants' Kyren Gronick battles Victoria Royals' Justin Kipkie and Reggie Newman
(Rob Wilton)		   



Western Hockey League Stories from March 16, 2024


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central