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WHL Vancouver Giants

Rockets Edge Giants in Shootout

September 6, 2008 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Vancouver Giants News Release


Kelowna BC - It was the tale of two games here tonight at the Prospera Centre. For the first 30 minutes it was all Giants as they built a 3-0 lead, for the next 30 minutes, it was the Jamie Benn Show as the Rockets forward scored the natural hat trick to lead the Rockets to a 4-3 victory in the shootout.

Mikhail Fisenko and Mike Piluso staked the Giants to a 2-0 first period lead. The goals came 17 seconds apart and came late in the first period as the Rockets ran into some penalty trouble.

In Period 2, Andrej Kudrna made it 3-0 Giants on a great second effort to push the puck past starting Rockets goalie Adam Brown. The Rockets would respond shorthanded at 11:31 as Jamie Benn converted a perfect feed from Colin Long to beat starting goalie Jamie Tucker of the Giants. Benn added a goal late in period two after a scramble in front of Tucker and we sat 3-2 after two periods of play.

In the third period, both teams traded chances before Jamie Benn completed his natural hat trick. Benn, parked at the top of the Giants crease, was able to bang home a Tyson Barrie pass on the power play with 1:15 to go.

In Overtime, Evander Kane had a fantastic shift with a couple of great scoring chances and the best hit of pre season as he crushed Rocket Curt Gogel in a mid ice collision. The Giants had the majority of the chances in the extra session, but were unable to capitalize.

In the shootout, the Rockets chose to shoot first and Stepan Novotny made no mistake, going shelf on Tucker. After a Kane miss, the Rockets sent out Lukas Matejka, who was neatly poke checked by Tucker. Brendan Gallagher was then thwarted on the spin o rama. In round three...Mitch Callahan was stopped cold by Tucker and then Mikhail Fisenko was stopped by a blocker save from Dylan Tait to end the game.

The Giants fall to 2-1-0-1 on the preseason and will wrap up against the Chilliwack Bruins next Friday and Saturday night. Friday's game will be at the Ladner Leisure Centre while Saturday's finale will be at the Prospera Centre in Chilliwack.

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