WHL Vancouver Giants

Giants Undefeated in December

Published on December 31, 2008 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Vancouver Giants News Release


Vancouver, B.C. - The Vancouver Giants finished off a perfect December on Tuesday night, laying an 8-3 pounding on the Moose Jaw Warriors and finishing off the month with an unblemished 10-0 record.

The Giants would start off early, as Lance Bouma was able to open the scoring for the G-Men, slipping a shot past Warriors net minder Devan Dubyk four minutes in to get things started. Casey Pierro-Zabotel would double the lead before the end of the period, as he would collect a Garry Nunn rebound and deposit the biscuit into the Warriors net for a 2-0 lead after one period.

Pierro-Zabotel would jumpstart a wild second period. After Craig Schira destroyed Warriors tough guy Ryley Grantham with a massive open ice collision, the puck would find a way to the Giants leading scorer. Casey would finish the play off for his second of the night and the Giants were up three. Andrej Kudrna would deflect a Brent Regner point shot at the eight minute mark of period two and the rout looked to be on...not so fast. Moose Jaw would strike for a goal just thirty seconds later as Martin Filo would drill a wrist shot under the crossbar past Giants goalie Jamie Tucker, 4-1. Then Warriors leading scorer Joel Broda would show us why he is the current top sniper in the WHL, as he would score back to back goals, both upstairs on Tucker, and before the end of the period, a 4-0 lead had evaporated to 4-3. But before the period had ended, Mikhail Fisenko would answer back for the Giants, backhanding a rebound past Dubyk with just eight seconds left in the period. Six goals scored, three by each team, and the Giants would retain their two goal lead after a wild second period.

In the third period, the Giants would take control, limiting the Warriors to just five shots and scoring three goals, two on the power play. Mike Berube would see his slap shot find a home halfway through the third to make it 6-3. Then Adam Basford and Andrej Kudrna with his second of the evening would round out the scoring with power play markers late to make the final score 8-3.

Jamie Tucker would surrender three goals, but collects his 11th win of the season and remains the only goaltender in the WHL without a regulation loss, (minimum 720 minutes played). Devan Dubyk would take the loss for the Warriors, who drop to 11-25-0-1 on the season.

Vancouver heads into 2009 with a 31-2-0-3 mark at the halfway point in the WHL's regular season. The Giants now have 65 points on the campaign and are 21 points clear of the Kelowna Rockets in the BC Division and 15 points ahead of their nearest competition, the Tri City Americans, in the Western Conference standings.

At the halfway mark of the season, the Giants also have the leading point scorer in Casey Pierro-Zabotel (61 points), the leading defensive scorer in Captain Jonathon Blum (44 points), the leading goaltender in Jamie Tucker (1.55 goals against average), the best 1-2 goalie tandem in the league, (Tucker and Sexsmith have a combined goals against average of 1.94), and the Giants have the Top 5 players in plus/minus rating and 7 of the Top 10 in that category.

Next up, 2009 and the second half of the season. The Giants played their first 36 games in 101 days. They will play their last 36 games of the season in 72 days, or about once every two days.

Vancouver will open 2009 versus the Red Deer Rebels at the Pacific Coliseum on Friday, January 2nd. You can catch all of the action on AM 650 and also in the Coliseum on 88.7 FM. Brook Ward will host the SAVE ON FOODS pre-game show at 7 pm, while Dave Sheldon and Steve Ewen will call the action at 7:30 p.m.

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Western Hockey League Stories from December 31, 2008


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