Vancouver Giants took four of a possible six points this weekend, following a big 3-1 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 17, before 4,406 at the Langley Events Centre.
Giants Head Coach Manny Viveiros was “very pleased with the way our kids played,” rebounding from their previous night’s 9-2 loss to Prince George.
“I thought our guys responded the way we expected them to,” Viveiros said.
“Every time we have an off night, we always come back the next night and play well. That was two tired hockey teams on the ice tonight. You could see it. Just hanging on the edge there, trying to catch their breath and stuff like that, grinding it out.”
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Scoring for the Giants was Colton Roberts, Jaden Lipinski and Ty Halaburda.
The Thunderbirds lone goal came off the stick of rookie Antonio Martorana.
Giants scored twice in the opening 20 minutes, both times on the power play.
First, just six seconds after 4-on-4 play ended, Colton Roberts leaned into one from the right circle that beat goaltender Grayson Malinoski on the short side to open the scoring.
Several minutes later the power play connected, as Ty Halaburda one-touched it to Tyler Thorpe in the left corner, who zipped it back to Lipinski, who made no mistake on the one-timer to make the score 2-0 at the 10:53 mark of the first period.
Thunderbirds got one back midway through the second period off the stick of Martorana, after he worked his way to the front of the net from the right circle and roofed it to cut Vancouver’s lead in half.
That was as close as the Thunderbirds would come, as Halaburda added an empty net goal with 34 seconds left to seal the deal.
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With the win, the Giants’ record improves to 13-18-2-0 this season. Seattle drops to 12-15-2-0.
Vancouver’s Jaden Lipinski and Brett Mirwald were named first and third stars of the game.
Giants outshot Thunderbirds 35-25.
Giants now have a 10-day break for the holidays. They return to the ice on Wednesday, Dec. 27 at home when they face the Victoria Royals. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
