WHL Vancouver Giants

New Acquisitions Pay Dividends in Giants' 4-2 Win Over Pats

January 12, 2024 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Vancouver Giants News Release


Vancouver Giants battle the Regina Pats
Vancouver Giants battle the Regina Pats
(Vancouver Giants, Credit: Keith Hershmiller Photography)

Regina, Sask. - The Vancouver Giants defeated the Regina Pats 4-2 on Friday night at the Brandt Centre to improve to 3-1 on their East Division road trip.

With the win, Vancouver's overall record improves to 17-22-2-0 and they have hopped the Tri-City Americans for 7th place in the Western Conference standings. Regina falls to 14-20-4-2 this season.

The Giants got goals from four different players on Friday: Connor Levis (11th, who scored on his first shift in a Giants uniform), Tyler Thorpe (20th), Tomis Marinkovic (2nd) and London Hoilett (4th). Brett Mirwald stopped 28 of 30 in net for his 14th win of the season.

Regina got a pair of goals from Braxton Whitehead (9th, 10th).

The Giants got out to a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.

Just 1:32 into the game, new acquisition Levis took advantage of a bad Regina change and turned on the jets through the neutral zone, then protected the puck from defenceman Aaron Krestanowich and finished on the forehand to open the scoring.

Several minutes later, Thorpe caused a turnover in the corner of the offensive zone and took the puck around the back of the net and all the way to the right circle, where he fired the puck on goal that deflected off a defender and in to make it 2-0 for Vancouver.

The Pats pushed back in the second period, out-shooting Vancouver 12-4 and getting to within a goal after Whitehead scored right off an offensive zone face-off at the 13:27 mark of the frame.

Another new face for the Giants extended their lead 4:49 into the third period, as Marinkovic intercepted a pass from Keagan Slaney at the offensive blue line and went in uncontested, ripping a shot bar down to make it 3-1 for the Giants.

The Pats wouldn't go down easy, as Whitehead scored his second of the game off the rush to make it 3-2 at the 10:35 mark of the third, but Vancouver would respond on the power play just a few minutes later.

It was Hoilett who gave Vancouver the breathing room they needed, as Zimmer gave him a one-touch pass from the goal line out to the front of the net on the power play. The former Hitmen forward who was acquired in December one-timed it home for his fourth of the season to make it 4-2 for Vancouver.

THEY SAID IT

"It was a good rebound game for us tonight. I thought the first and third were really good. A little bit of a lapse there in the second from the group, but a good response. I thought our third was our best period. Obviously getting Levis in tonight, he scores a big goal early on that builds some morale and some belief early for the group and I thought we stuck with it for the 60 minutes." Giants Associate Coach Adam Maglio on the game overall

"That's winning hockey, right? I think we've talked about this a lot before: when we score first, generally we're in more control of the game and certainly our goaltending, like tonight Mirwald was outstanding and really gave us a chance because he saw some action in the second period there and held us in it. So it's been good road hockey. The guys are executing the plan and overall three of the four games have been quite good for us." Giants Associate Coach Adam Maglio scoring first

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN - 11/4/12 = 27 | REG- 10/12/8 = 30

PP: VAN - 1/3 | REG - 0/2

Face-Offs: VAN - 27 | REG - 33

3 STARS

1st: REG - Braxton Whitehead - 2G, 3 SOG

2nd: VAN- Tomis Marinkovic - 1G, 1 SOG

3rd: REG - Zach Moore - 2A

GOALTENDING BATTLE

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

Regina: Loss - Kelton Pyne (23 saves / 27 shots)

NEXT GAME:

The Giants wrap up their five-game road trip through the Prairies on Saturday against the Moose Jaw Warriors at 5 p.m. PT.

Check out the Vancouver Giants Statistics




Images from this story

Vancouver Giants battle the Regina Pats
Vancouver Giants battle the Regina Pats
(Keith Hershmiller Photography)		   



Western Hockey League Stories from January 12, 2024


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