Sports stats



WHL Vancouver Giants

Sexsmith makes 36 saves in 3-1 win

November 13, 2008 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Vancouver Giants News Release


KELOWNA BC - You knew that over the course of a season, your goaltender is going to win you a few games...tonight was one of those games.

Giants goaltender Tyson Sexsmith was superb, stopping 36 of 37 shots faced and leading the Vancouver Giants to a 3-1 win over the Kelowna Rockets. Sexsmith made countless Kelowna scoring opportunities look tame, turning what had to be at least a dozen high quality scoring chances on the night into routine saves. There wasn't a weak link in the Vancouver net minder's game on Wednesday, and the Giants needed every one of those saves to pull out a victory.

The first period saw the Kelowna Rockets come out flying after a week off. The continuous pressure and physical play led to a pair of back to back penalties against the Giants. After a bench minor for a too many men penalty followed by a Brendan Gallagher tripping penalty, the Giants found themselves down two players for over a minute midway through the period. Enter Sexsmith...who dazzled with three or four enormous saves, allowing the Giants the opportunity to kill off the penalties and get on a power play late in period one. Brent Regner took a pass from Evander Kane and snapped a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle. Rockets rookie Adam Brown had the Regner shot clip the top of his glove and flip up and over his shoulder into the net. 1-0 Vancouver on Regner's third of the year from Kane and Casey Pierro-Zabotel at 16:53.

On the very next shift, the Rockets would strike back. Mitchell Callahan would track down a blocked shot out of his own zone and race away on a breakaway. Callahan would skate in a top speed and beat Sexsmith with a wrist shot glove side to tie things at one, just 27 seconds later at 17:20. The Rockets would outshoot the Giants 14-8 and had many of the great chances.

The second period would remain scoreless, once again thanks to the play in the crease of both Sexsmtih and Brown. Both clubs had some nice opportunities to take the lead, but neither net minder would budge. Shots on goal again favoured the Rockets, this time by a 11-9 margin.

In the third period, the Giants started to get their game on track and that led to a penalty by the Rockets Lukas Matejka. Matejka would get whistled for tripping Craig Cunningham and the number one ranked power play would get to work. In the late stages of the power play, some nifty passing from Craig Schira and James Wright would end up on the stick of Slovakian forward Andrej Kudrna. Kudrna's quick shot would deflect off a defender and past Brown to give the Giants the lead at 7:03. Kudrna now has 9 goals on the season and has been great on a line with James Wright over the past few games.

Brendan Gallagher would double the lead a few minutes later...but what a strange goal! Gallagher would take the initial shot from the top of the slot. The shot was tipped high into the air by the stick of Kelowna defender Tyler Myers and looked to be an easy basket catch save for the goaltender Adam Brown. Not so fast! The other defenseman on the play for Kelowna, Aaron Borejko, would attempt to bat the puck out of harm's way with his glove. What ensued was a scene out of the Bad News Bears as Brown and Borejko, looking like they were a couple of outfielders that didn't call each other off to make the catch, come together and have the puck bounce off the glove of Borejko and into the back of the net...unbelievable! Gallagher would get his fourth goal of the season and that would turn out to be the final nail in the coffin for the Rockets, as they would have no answer for the two Giants third period tallies.

The Giants would be outshot in a game for the first time all season by a 37-24 margin. Tyson Sexsmith was outstanding and takes the win for the Giants with 36 saves on 37 shots. Adam Brown would take his first WHL loss, falling to 7-1 on the season as he would make 21 of 24 saves in the loss.

The Giants will now head home for the return matchup with the Rockets, this Friday night at the Pacific Coliseum. The White Spot Pre-game show on AM 650 will be at 7 p.m., with the puck drop at 7:30. Dave Sheldon and Steve Ewen from The PROVINCE will have the call of the game on the radio while Dan Russell and Bill Wilms will call the game throughout Western Canada on SHAW TV.

Check out the Vancouver Giants Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from November 13, 2008


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