Gary Ahuja
Black Press
It took James Malm 30 games to get his first career Western Hockey League goal.
But it didn’t take long to get his second as Malm potted a pair of goals on Sunday afternoon at the Langley Events Centre against the Kamloops Blazers in helping the Giants pick up their first victory of the season with a 3-1 victory in front of 3,712 fans.
Malm scored twice and Ryan Kubic made 27 saves as the Giants improved to 1-4-0-0. The Blazers fell to 2-3-0-0.
Brendan Semchuk opened the scoring for Vancouver, taking a pass from Dawson Holt, and after settling the puck down, firing a wrist shot past Kamloops’ Connor Ingram.
And less than two minutes later, the Giants had their first two-goal lead of the season as Malm buried the rebound off Alec Baer’s shot on a two-on-one break.
Kamloops — playing their third game in less than 72 hours — took a timeout and found their game, controlling the rest of the period, but still trailing 2-0 after 20 minutes.
The Blazers got on the board 6:03 into the second as defenceman Luke Zazula — playing in his hometown — beat Kubic with a wrist shot from the point through traffic after a won face-off.
Kamloops had the better of the chances but six minutes later, on the Giants first shot of the period, Malm picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone, skated down the wing and fired home his second of the game.
The game’s three stars were: 1. James Malm; 2. Radovan Bondra; 3. Ryan Kubic.
More to follow.
