Sports stats



WHL Vancouver Giants

Giants Top Tri-City 5-1 for 30th Win of Season

March 13, 2024 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Vancouver Giants News Release


Tri-City Americans' Carter MacAdams and Vancouver Giants' Jaden Lipinski on the ice
Tri-City Americans' Carter MacAdams and Vancouver Giants' Jaden Lipinski on the ice
(Vancouver Giants, Credit: Rob Wilton)

Langley, B.C. - The Vancouver Giants needed a win on Tuesday night and they got one, recording a season-high 47 shots on goal in a 5-1 win over the visiting Tri-City Americans.

The line of Jaden Lipinski (2G), Ty Halaburda (3A) and Cameron Schmidt (2A) combined for seven points in the victory.

The Giants are now back over .500, with an overall record of 30-29-4-0 (64 points), which places them in seventh place in the Western Conference Standings. Vancouver is now just two points back of the fifth-place Kelowna Rockets (66 points) and one point back of the sixth-place Victoria Royals (65 points). The Giants have five games left on the schedule, three of which are at home.

Lipinski's two goals on Tuesday helped him reach the 20-goal plateau on the season, becoming the sixth Giant to record 20 or more goals in 2023-24. Also scoring for Vancouver was Connor Levis (21st), Mazden Leslie (14th) and Adam Titlbach (9th).

The lone Tri-City came from rookie Cash Koch.

GAME SUMMARY

The Giants needed less than four minutes to open the scoring, as Matthew Edwards shot from the top of the left circle ricocheted off Levis in front of the net and went in to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead at the 3:22 mark of the opening period.

In the dying seconds of the first period, Leslie would double the Giants lead, after he picked a corner from the goal line during 4-on-4 play to make it 2-0.

The Americans cut the Giants lead in half 6:41 into the second period when Koch was wide open in the slot and beat Mirwald for his 10th of the year.

But before the second period was done, Vancouver restored their two-goal advantage, after a quick pass from Schmidt from the left corner out front to Lipinski, who provided a target and tapped it in to make the score 3-1.

After 40 minutes, the Giants not only had a two-goal lead, but were also out-shooting Tri-City 34-17.

Although the Giants couldn't grab an insurance marker for most of the third period, Lipinski got his 20th of the season into the empty net with 1:09 left to make it 4-1, before Titlbach scored his ninth of the season with under a minute to play to make the final score 5-1.

THEY SAID IT

"These games are tough to play because it's a game you're expected to win and it's a game that we needed to win and we knew that. We certainly weren't - after the second game in Prince George - we weren't happy with the effort we had that night. The first night we played, Friday there, I thought we played a really good hockey game. Tonight the kids, we came back, we re-set again. I thought it was a very business-like approach tonight. Our guys were really focused and dialled in. It was two points we needed tonight. For a while there, they hung around and hung around. We controlled the majority of the play, but we just weren't able to get that extra, that third goal to kind of break it open. We kept saying 'stay with our game.' We were doing a lot of good things out there. We're not giving them a lot of chances and those are the types of games that at this time of year, you have to be prepared to play and be able to finish out." - Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the game overall

"We've said we wanted to clinch a playoff spot first, which we did on the weekend and then our second goal is that we want to get to fifth place. That's still realistic for us. We had a game in hand, we made up two points on the other teams and we've got some of these other teams that we're playing head to head here. So crucial weekend coming up here in the next five games that we have here. If we come out with a really good record out of these last five games, we have a good chance of fifth place and that's what we want." Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the standings

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN - 19/15/13 = 47 | TC - 7/10/8 = 25

PP: VAN- 0/4 | TC - 1/2

Face-Offs: VAN - 34 | TC - 22

3 STARS

1st: VAN - Ty Halaburda - 3A, 2 SOG, +3

2nd: VAN - Mazden Leslie - 1G, 8 SOG, +1

3rd: TC - Kyle Kelsey- 42 Saves on 46 Shots

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: WIN - Brett Mirwald (24 saves / 25 shots)

Tri-City: Loss - Kyle Kelsey (42 saves / 46 shots)

NEXT GAME:

The Giants now have a 3-in-3 upcoming this weekend, as they host the Kamloops Blazers on Friday at the Langley Events Centre at 7 p.m., before hitting the road for a rematch with Kamloops on Saturday night at 6 p.m. On Sunday, they'll host Prince George at 4 p.m.

Check out the Vancouver Giants Statistics




Images from this story

Tri-City Americans' Carter MacAdams and Vancouver Giants' Jaden Lipinski on the ice
Tri-City Americans' Carter MacAdams and Vancouver Giants' Jaden Lipinski on the ice
(Rob Wilton)		   



Western Hockey League Stories from March 13, 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