Thorpe's OT Winner Gets Giants Past T-Birds on Opening Night
September 21, 2024 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Vancouver Giants News Release
Vancouver Giants right wing Tyler Thorpe celebrates his game-winner vs. the Seattle Thunderbirds
(Vancouver Giants, Credit: Rob Wilton)
Langley, B.C. - Cameron Schmidt had a pair of goals 105 seconds apart and Tyler Thorpe scored the overtime winner in the Vancouver Giants 4-3 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds on Friday night at the Langley Events Centre.
Aaron Obobaifo had the other tally for the G-Men, who began the third period down 2-0, but scored three goals in a span of 5:11 to take a 3-2 lead.
Goaltender Matthew Hutchison stopped 25 of 28 for his first win of the new season.
The Thunderbirds got two goals from rookie Colton Gerrior and one from Kazden Mathies.
There were no goals to report from the first period and not a lot of action, other than two Giants power plays that went by the wayside.
Early in the second, Seattle's Gerrior scored two goals in 51 seconds, each of them off fortunate bounces. First, a miscommunication behind the Giants net between goaltender and defenceman led to an easy tap-in goal with nobody to guard the cage.
Not long after, Gerrior's centering pass went off a stick at the bottom of the circle and deflected into the Giants net.
Vancouver was able to generate some solid looks in the back half of the second period, but rookie goaltender Grayson Malinoski made some key saves to keep the visitors up 2-0 after two periods. At that point, the G-Men were outshooting Seattle 23-18.
Early in the third period, things changed - and quickly.
Schmidt got things rolling just over four minutes in when he stole the puck from Braeden Cootes at the offensive blue line and scored on a breakaway with a nice backhand finish.
Less than two minutes later, Schmidt cashed in a power play thanks to a beautiful cross-ice pass from Adam Titlbach.
Just 3:26 after Schmidt's game-tying-goal, Kyren Gronick took a backhand pass from Thorpe at the right circle and launched a feed to the far-side post to Obobaifo, who simply had to tap it in to give the Giants a 3-2 lead.
Seattle wouldn't go away easily, however.
In the dying seconds of the game, with the goalie pulled, Mathies was the first one onto a bouncing puck in the slot and chipped it over the blocker of Hutchison to send the game to overtime tied at three.
The Giants had all the possession in the 3-on-3 overtime, and just over one minute in, Thorpe ended it after taking a pass from Zimmer and letting a shot go that whizzed past Malinoski on the blocker side.
"I thought we played really well the first two periods. We gave up a couple unlucky goals, but that's going to happen at this level - at any level - and the kids stayed calm and played the game that we wanted them to play and got back. We got some timely goals and some momentum and we rode it from there." - Head Coach Manny Viveiros
"Hutch has such a good demeanour. He knows if he's made a mistake throughout the game - and everybody does - but don't carry that on, just get it over with and move forward here. There's no use looking in the rearview mirror, you can't change it. So that's a real positive. I thought he made some really key saves for us in the second and in the third period." Head Coach Manny Viveiros
"Real good battle by the boys. Obviously an up and down game, there were a lot of crazy bounces and stuff going on, but I thought the boys did a really good job of staying calm and fighting throughout the whole game. We didn't wilt. The boys definitely supported me a lot. It was a fun win...This is a pretty cool place to play. It's a pretty amazing league and every game when I'm in the net, I take a chance to just look around and soak in the game. Obviously the rink was packed tonight; it was loud. It's pretty special, not something everyone can do. I'm never taking a minute for granted, but I'm super excited. Just want to play a ton of games here and do everything I can to give the boys a chance to win every night and win games for this organization." Goaltender Matthew Hutchison STATISTICS
SOG : VAN - 11/12/6/1 = 30 | SEA - 5/13/10/0 = 28
PP: VAN- 1/5 | SEA - 1/3
Face-Offs: VAN - 39 | SEA - 28 GOALTENDING BATTLE
Vancouver : WIN - Matthew Hutchison (25 saves / 28 shots)
Seattle: LOSS - Grayson Malinoski (26 saves / 30 shots) UP NEXT Date Opponent Time Location Saturday, Sept. 21 Everett Silvertips 6:05 PM PT Angel of the Winds Arena Friday, Sept. 27 Prince George Cougars 7 PM PT Langley Events Centre Friday, October 4 Kamloops Blazers 7 PM PT Langley Events Centre Sunday, October 6 Calgary Hitmen 1 PM PT Scotiabank Saddledome
Giants season tickets and flex packs are NOW ON SALE! Season ticket packages start as low as $17.20 per game and include the first two home playoff games, plus a free subscription to WHL Live. Flex packs start at just $135 and come in six or 12-ticket packs. Call the Giants Office at 604.4.GIANTS (+1 (604) 444-2687) or contact the Giants at: sales@vancouvergiants.com.
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