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WHL Vancouver Giants

Giants Push Winning Streak To 3 With Shootout Win Over Raiders

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


Prince Albert, Sask. - For the first time this season, the Vancouver Giants have won three consecutive games.

This, following an exciting 6-5 shootout victory on the road over the Prince Albert Raiders on Tuesday night, where newcomer Tyson Zimmer - acquired by the Giants on Monday - had the only goal from either side in the shootout.

In net, Matthew Hutchison picked up his third win of the season for Vancouver by stopping all six Raiders he faced in the shootout. The 17-year-old also made 29 saves in regulation.

With the win, Vancouver's record improves to 16-21-2-0 this season and moves them to within one point of seventh place in the Western Conference standings. Prince Albert falls to 18-18-0-3.

The Giants got goals from five different suspects in the win: Mazden Leslie (8th), Tomis Marinkovic (1st), Sam Honzek (4th), Jaden Lipinski (12th) and Tyler Thorpe (19th). It was Marinkovic's first goal in a Giants uniform, while Honzek scored in his first game back with the club following the World Junior Hockey Championship.

Prince Albert got a hat-trick from Oli Chenier, plus single tallies from Krzysztof Macias and Sloan Stanick.

GAME SUMMARY:

It didn't take long for the Giants to find the back of the net in this one - in fact, they scored twice early.

First, Hutchison made a sliding left pad save on Nail Crocker on the backdoor to keep the game scoreless. On the same sequence, the Giants went back the other way with Tyler Thorpe carrying the puck down the left wing, slipping past a check and firing the puck on goal. While Max Hildebrand made the save, Leslie was right there to tap in the rebound.

Just over three minutes later, while the Giants were killing a penalty, Hildebrand came out to play the puck, which took a weird bounce and deflected in front of the net, where Marinkovic was there to easily shoot it into the yawning cage for his first in a Giant uniform.

The Raiders got one back midway through the period, and after 20 minutes, the score was 2-1 for Vancouver.

Prince Albert would go on to tie the game 2-2 at the 7:16 mark of the second, after Chenier scored his second of the game.

Not long after the Raiders evened the score, the Giants drew two consecutive penalties, giving them a 5-on-3 man advantage. On that power play, Leslie teed up Honzek for a one-time blast that beat Hildebrand to re-store the Giants one-goal lead.

Before the period was done, the Giants found themselves defending in their own zone for an extended period and the Raiders eventually made them pay. At the 16:00 minute mark, Macias banked in a rebound off the end boards to tie the game 3-3.

After the first 10 minutes of the third period saw no goals from either side, Vancouver scored twice quickly to take a 5-3 lead just past the halfway point.

First, on a power play, Lipinski's hard pass to the far post redirected and went in along the ice past Hildebrand.

Then, the Raiders gave the puck away to the Giants near the slot area, and Thorpe made them pay, firing a quick shot up high in tight to make it a two-goal Giants advantage.

However, Stanick made it a one-goal game with 4:57 remaining, before Chenier completed the hat-trick with 3:56 left to even the score once more.

The Giants got a power play with 1:01 remaining, but could not score, forcing overtime.

While, Vancouver couldn't score on the 4-on-3 power play to begin OT, it meant play went to 4-on-4 instead of 3-on-3, which remained for the entirety of the extra frame, as there we no whistles after the power play expired.

In the shootout, the shooters couldn't fool the goaltenders. Eleven of the 12 overall shooters were stopped, with Zimmer the only one scoring for either side in the sixth round to cap off the win for Vancouver.

THEY SAID IT

"We knew coming in it was going to be a hard fought game. P.A. does a really good job in their home barn. I think they keep their games simple and a lot of a lot of the play was along the walls and it was a bit of a trench game, so I thought our guys stuck with it. Obviously not happy giving up that lead at the end, but finding a way in a shootout [was huge]. I thought Hutch was outstanding, especially in that shootout, he was great." Giants Associate Coach Adam Maglio on the game overall

"These Eastern swings - these central swings, out of division - I've been on a few of them and you can really gain a lot of momentum and traction. There's a lot of team building that happens on the road, so teams become a little bit closer, especially when you're winning games. I think it's important to start off well on the swings. I think if you start off on the other side, it's hard to get that momentum back. So we've done exactly that. We've started off strong and we need to keep it going into a pretty tough test tomorrow in Saskatoon." - Giants Associate Coach Adam Maglio on starting the road trip off right

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN - 11/10/11/4 = 37 | PA - 15/10/9/0 = 34

PP: VAN - 2/5 | PA - 0/1

Face-Offs: VAN - 26 | PA - 30

3 STARS

1st: PA - Oli Chenier - 3G, 1A, 3 SOG, +3

2nd: PA - Harrison Lodewyk - 2A, 1 SOG, +3

3rd: VAN - Tyler Thorpe - 1G, 2A, 5 SOG, +1

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: WIN - Matthew Hutchison (29 saves / 34 shots + 6-for-6 in the SO )

Prince Albert: Loss - Max Hildebrand (31 saves / 36 shots + 5-for-6 in the SO)

NEXT GAME:

The Giants continue their five-game road trip through the Prairies tomorrow in Saskatoon against the Blades. Then they'll face off against Regina on Friday and Moose Jaw on Saturday.

Check out the Vancouver Giants Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from January 9, 2024


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