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WHL Vancouver Giants

Giants Edged by Cougars 5-3; Still Clinch Playoff Spot

March 9, 2024 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Vancouver Giants News Release


Vancouver Giants' Samuel Honzek in action
Vancouver Giants' Samuel Honzek in action
(Vancouver Giants, Credit: James Doyle)

Prince George, B.C. - On a night where the Vancouver Giants pushed late but eventually lost 5-3 to the Prince George Cougars, they still officially clinched a playoff berth after Tri-City lost to the Wenatchee Wild.

Friday's loss sees the Giants' overall record dip to 29-28-4-0 (62 points), which now places them in seventh place in the Western Conference Standings, following Kelowna's win on Friday over Kamloops, giving them 64 points. Vancouver remains three points back of the fifth-place Victoria Royals (65 points) - with two games in hand.

The Giants clinched a playoff spot because mathematically the ninth-place Seattle Thunderbirds cannot pass them in the standings, even if they win all of their remaining games. It is the fifth straight season (not including the two COVID seasons with no playoffs) the Giants have qualified for the post-season.

Vancouver's game on Friday was highlighted by a record-breaking night for forward Cameron Schmidt, who broke the Giants franchise record for most goals in a single season by a 16-year-old rookie, scoring his 25th and 26th of the year to surpass Gilbert Brule, who scored 25 times in 67 games during the 2003-04 season.

Also scoring for the Giants on Friday was Jaden Lipinski (18th).

Terik Parascak had a standout game for Prince George, finishing with two goals and three assists. Zack Funk also had a pair of goals, his 60th and 61st goals of the season, while Hudson Thornton had the other tally for the home side. Special teams played a role in the result too, with the Cougars going 2-for-6 on the power play, while the Giants went 0-for-4.

GAME SUMMARY

Only one goal was scored in the opening 20 minutes, which came at the 7:50 mark of the opening period on a 5-on-3 Cougars power play, as Parascak put it home from the slot after some quick passing to make it 1-0.

Midway through the second, Giants goaltender Brett Mirwald made some marvellous stops on a penalty kill to keep the deficit at just 1-0.

Unfortunately for the Giants, right after they killed it off, Prince George doubled their lead after Parascak fed a pass across to Funk, who became just the second WHL player in the last six seasons to reach the 60-goal plateau (after Connor Bedard last season).

Just 1:16 later, Funk scored his 61st of the year on a backdoor one-timer on the power play to make it 3-0 Prince George.

Before the period was done, Lipinski got the Giants on the board on an odd-man rush, ripping it home while skating down the left wing.

After two periods, the Giants trailed 3-1.

The Cougars went up 4-1 just before the five-minute mark of the third period after Riley Heidt went cross-crease off the rush to Parascak, who scored his second of the night and 36th of the season.

With the Giants down 4-1 in the third, Schmidt went to work.

First, he made it a 4-2 game with under seven minutes left after he out-muscled Villiam Kmec for a loose puck that was banked off the boards and sitting inside the Cougars zone. After lifting Kmec's stick and staying on his feet, Schmidt took the puck from the left circle and cut his way to the net, where he stuffed it past the out-stretched pad of Joshua Ravensbergen to make the score 4-2.

With 2:40 left in the game, Schmidt came through with yet another highlight reel goal, this time holding the zone by preventing a clearing attempt, and then dancing his way through traffic and eventually into the right circle, where he ripped a shot that hit the back bar and came out within the blink of an eye. The referees had to check with the video crew to ensure the puck had indeed gone in, and after a quick chat, they deemed it had gone in, making the score 4-3.

Despite Schmidt's late-game heroics, Cougars captain Hudson Thornton responded just 32 seconds later to make it 5-3 with 2:08 left in the game, which held up as the final score.

THEY SAID IT

"We liked our start. We talked about giving PG easy offence and I think when we checked well and we were on top of them, we were going to create some offence of our own. I thought tonight it was just little details at the end of the day [like] discipline - we take retaliatory penalties against a team that has one of the top [power plays] in the league and it just came down to a fine line between winning and losing. If we want to play with these top teams, we need to be committed for 60 minutes and making sure we're making team-first decisions..." - Associate Coach Adam Maglio on the game overall

"Schmidt kind of took a hold of things there, he was electric in that last five minutes. We know our group is going to fight until the end and we've shown that, especially in the last two months. It was a little too late at the end of the day. We give up that 5-on-5 [goal]. I thought [if we had a] chance to get [Mirwald] back out, we might have had a chance to tie things back up." - Associate Coach Adam Maglio on not giving up

"His game has been unbelievable, especially the past couple weeks. He drives lines a lot of nights. We're proud of him. I think he's realized he's got to take care of the puck on both sides and I think that's one thing he's been much, much better at and his game just keeps growing." - Associate Coach Adam Maglio on Schmidt

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN - 12/10/11 = 33 | PG - 12/21/10 = 43

PP: VAN- 0/4 | PG - 2/6

Face-Offs: VAN - 41 | PG - 35

3 STARS

1st: PG - Terik Parascak - 2G, 3A, 10 SOG, +3

2nd: VAN - Cameron Schmidt - 2G, 1A, 3 SOG, +2

3rd: PG - Zac Funk - 2G, 1A, 5 SOG, +2

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: Loss - Brett Mirwald (39 saves / 44 shots)

Prince George: WIN - Joshua Ravensbergen (30 saves / 33 shots)

NEXT GAME:

The Giants rematch against the Cougars goes on Saturday at 6 PM. The Giants next home game is Tuesday, March 12 at 7 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre.

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Images from this story

Vancouver Giants' Samuel Honzek in action
Vancouver Giants' Samuel Honzek in action
(James Doyle)		   



Western Hockey League Stories from March 9, 2024


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