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WHL Vancouver Giants

Giants Erase Early 2-0 Deficit to Crush Wild 7-2

February 11, 2024 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Vancouver Giants News Release


Vancouver Giants' Ty Halaburda on game night
Vancouver Giants' Ty Halaburda on game night
(Vancouver Giants)

Langley, B.C. - The trio of Kyren Gronick, Connor Levis and Cameron Schmidt combined for eight points in a 7-2 come-from-behind win over the Wenatchee Wild on Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre.

The Giants are now winners of four straight and are 7-0-1 in their last eight contests. Vancouver is also back to .500 for the first time since early October, with an overall record now of 24-24-3-0. Wenatchee falls to 27-21-4-0 this season.

Also of note, the Giants are 6-0 on home ice since New Year's Day.

Connor Levis (16th, 17th) and Kyren Gronick (6th, 7th) each had a pair of goals in the win, while Ty Halaburda (16th), Matthew Edwards (2nd) and Jaden Lipinski (15th) also scored in the win.

Giants goaltender Brett Mirwald made 28 saves on 30 shots for his 21st win of the season. He is now 10-2-1 in his last 13 games.

Scoring for Wenatchee was Hayden Moore and Evan Friesen.

GAME SUMMARY

Wenatchee scored the game's opening goal just 2:15 in, although Moore's net drive needed video review before ultimately determining the puck had crossed the goal line, making it 1-0 for the visitors.

The Wild doubled their lead midway through the frame, after defenceman Jonas Woo used his speed to take the puck wide on the right wing and create a 2-on-1, where he ultimately get the puck to the front for Friesen, who put it home at the side of the goal.

Vancouver responded with two goals before the intermission.

First, Gronick and Logen Hammett started the breakout in their own zone by getting the puck to Levis, who poked it past a pinching defenceman to create a 2-on-1 with Schmidt. Levis decided to shoot, making no mistake from the right circle over the glove of Gee.

The line of Levis, Schmidt and Gronick would connect minutes later to the tie the game 2-2 after Levis found Gronick at the back door for a tap-in off the rush.

Halaburda would score the only goal of the second period to give Vancouver a 3-2 lead at the 11:19 mark of the period, after he was the first player to a loose puck just inside the offensive blue line, using his speed to create a semi-breakaway where he finished on the backhand.

The Giants exploded for four goals in the third period.

First, Schmidt backhanded a lob pass from his own zone over both Wild defenders to spring Levis on a breakaway, where he went top shelf on the backhand to make it 4-2.

Edwards would increase Vancouver's lead to 5-2 just 43 seconds later, after a great drop feed from Tomis Marinkovic in the slot.

With under five minutes to go, Lipinski and Gronick would each find the back of the net as well, making it a 7-2 final score.

CLICK FOR THE FULL ONLINE RECAP WITH HIGHLIGHTS AND THE POST-GAME AUDIO INTERVIEW

THEY SAID IT

"We did get off to a slow start tonight. We were hoping to catch them after longer travel than we had last night and our game plan was to get on them right away and put them under pressure, but they weren't having anything to do with that. They actually flipped the script on us and came after us pretty hard and we caught ourselves in that first period standing still a little bit too much and they were coming after us hard and we had a hard time handling a bit of their speed. But we made some adjustments in the second period to offset that. I thought once we got our feet going again and simplified our, I thought we were much better." - Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the team's start, going down 2-0

"The way they competed and stuck with it, I was very happy with that. This weekend was a really good weekend here. One thing I liked is - that's a positive for for us - is we've still got room to improve. That's the best thing. If we can dial it in a bit more, we can get better and better here. That's the exciting part of it with this young group." - Head Coach Manny Viveiros on if it was an 'A' game

"95 per cent comes from the players. They know, at this stage of the season, they know how we need to play and what we need to do to correct some things. A lot of times we don't have to say anything at all. We just reinforce it or support and then maybe sometimes reset our group to focus in the right direction, but for the most part it's all on the kids. They're the ones that do all that. I agree with you, over this last stretch, over this last month since Christmas here, our group has really come together, they've really bonded, and a lot of our leaders are doing a lot of coaching for us in those situations." - Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the players leading the way

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN - 11/7/9 = 27 | WEN - 11/12/7 = 30

PP: VAN - 1/1 | WEN - 0/3

Face-Offs: VAN - 39 | WEN - 19

3 STARS

1st: VAN - Connor Levis - 2G, 1A, 5 SOG, +3

2nd: VAN - Kyren Gronick - 2G, 1A, 2 SOG, +3

3rd: VAN - Cameron Schmidt - 2A, 3 SOG, +3

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: WIN - Brett Mirwald (28 saves / 30 shots)

Wenatchee: Loss - Brendan Gee (20 saves / 27 shots)

NEXT GAME:

The Giants have a three-game week on the horizon, as they'll travel to Victoria on Wednesday, before a home-and-home with the Portland Winterhawks on Friday and Saturday. The home game is Friday, with puck drop set for 7 PM at the LEC.

Check out the Vancouver Giants Statistics




Images from this story

Vancouver Giants' Ty Halaburda on game night
Vancouver Giants' Ty Halaburda on game night
   



Western Hockey League Stories from February 11, 2024


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