Vancouver Giants fell 4-3 in overtime on Saturday night, Nov. 18, to the Lethbridge Hurricanes at the Langley Events Centre.
Vancouver got a pair of goals from rookie Cameron Schmidt, plus a third period tally from Tyler Thorpe to go ahead 3-1, but the Hurricanes came back to tie the game before winning it 47 seconds into overtime.
The visitors got two goals from Kooper Gizowski, one from Leo Braillard, and the OT winner from defenceman Noah Chadwick.
Associate Coach Adam Maglio said the Giants were tired, but determined.
“We liked our compete level, we liked how we stuck in there and hung in there with a tough four in five here and obviously lapses in the last three minutes” Maglio commented in a post-game interview.
“The kids played hard. They competed hard. They’re a pretty resilient group considering how tired they were…We need to find results and [get] two points, especially with where we are in the standings, so obviously games like that sting.”
Giants’ record falls to 8-12-2-0 this season.
Hurricanes opened the scoring after Kooper Gizowski was open in the slot and rifled a shot top corner 5:19 into the first.
Just 40 seconds later, the Giants responded to even the score, after Mazden Leslie fed a cross-ice pass to Schmidt, who was waiting just outside the crease and roofed it make the game 1-1.
Schmidt potted his second of the game less than a minute into the second period, after Ty Halaburda missed the net, and Schmidt was able to quickly throw the puck on goal, where it hit the skate of goaltender Harrison Meneghin and into the Hurricanes net.
Lethbridge came out hungry in the third period.
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The Giants weathered the storm for the first half of the period, getting an insurance marker from Tyler Thorpe at the 11:03 mark of the third to make the score 3-1 on his 10th goal of the season, but with 4:59 left in the game, Braillard scored an unassisted goal to get Lethbridge to within a goal.
Then, with the goaltender pulled for the extra attacker, Gizowski banged home his second of the game following a bounce off the end boards to force overtime.
In the extra frame, Chadwick got free in the slot and fired a shot on the blocker side to end the game, burying his sixth goal of the season.
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Schmidt was named second star of the game.
Lethbridge outshot Vancouver 41-21.
Vancouver hits the road next week, with contests against Spokane (Wednesday Nov. 22) and Kamloops (Friday Nov. 24), before returning home Saturday (Nov 25) for a date with the Tri-City Americans at 7 p.m.
