Vancouver Giants shattered Red Deer’s hopes in more ways than one Saturday night.
The Langley-based team won their game against the Rebels 4-3 in a shootout, but also shattered a panel of arena glass.
There was a lengthy delay during Saturday’ night’s game, while Langley Events Centre staff had to clean up a shattered pain of glass inside the Red Deer zone, after Giants forward Bartek Bison delivered a “crunching body check” to Rebels defence man Brandon Schuldhaus during the their period.
While that was attention grabbing, so too were the goals by the Giants, said marketing director Brendan Batchelor – especially Jack Flaman’s goal that lifted the G-Men to what he called a “thrilling” victory.
Coming off a streak of four losses that was capped with a 6-1 defeat by the Kamloops Blazers on Friday, the Giants turned it all around on Saturday.
Less than a minute into the game, Owen Hardy put the Giants on the board, scoring from the slot after a nice setup from Brendan Semchuk.
Lane Zablocki tied the game for the Rebels less than two minutes later on a power play, and Akash Bains gave the Rebels the lead when he beat Vancouver starter David Tendeck on a drive to the net. Tendeck was replaced by Ryan Kubic after giving up two goals on two shots.
Ty Ronning evened the score for the G-Men, scoring on his own rebound from the slot, with six seconds left in the second period.
Zablocki tallied his second of the evening early in the third period, but Tyler Popowich made it 3-3, poking a rebound between the legs of Rebels goalie Riley Lamb.
Then, following the glass incident, the game went into overtime where Kubic was forced to “come up big for Vancouver, making a remarkable breakaway save on Michael Spacek to help the G-Men force a shootout,” Batchelor said.
Ultimately, Ronning and Flaman scored shootout goals to lift the Giants to the victory.
Kubic earned first star honours after making 35 saves in the Vancouver crease.
The Giants return to action on Friday, Feb. 24, against the Victoria Royals at the Langley Events Centre.
Face-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
For tickets, click here or call 604-444-2687.
