Vancouver Giants ended a three-games-in-three days weekend with a 5-2 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds on Sunday afternoon, Mar. 3, in front of 4,577 fans at the Langley Events Centre.
Five different players scored for the Giants in the win: Ty Halaburda (19th), Tyson Zimmer (21st), Aaron Obobaio (6th), Connor Levis (20th) and Cameron Schmidt (24th). Brett Mirwald stopped 25 of 27 for his 26th win of the season, which is tied for 2nd amongst all WHL goaltenders.
Jordan Gustafson and Eric Alarie had the goals for the Thunderbirds.
After two losses on Friday and Saturday, the team got off to a better start, Giants Video & Skills Coach Kayden Jarvis noted.
“We didn’t start probably as well as we wanted to, but we started better than the previous two games, so that set us off on the right foot tonight,” Jarvis commented.
“We did a pretty good job of not trying to force plays, of letting plays develop and that was a difference maker.”
Giants opened the scoring on their first shot, after Schmidt found Halaburda at the side of the net for the redirect.
Seattle tied it late in the first when Gustafson’s shot from the slot beat Mirwald five-hole.
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Vancouver struck twice in lss than three minutesmidway through the second period to take control of the game.
Sam Honzek fed a cross-ice pass to Tyson Zimmer through the neutral zone, leading to a 1-on-1 down the right wing for Zimmer, who beat Scott Ratzlaff with a clean snap shot from the right dot for his 21st of the season.
Then, good work along the wall from Obobaifo and Gronick led to a point shot from Colton Alain that deflected off Obobaifo and went in, extending the Giants’ lead to 3-1.
Just over two minutes into the third period, Levis one-timed home a pass from Lipinski on the power play for his 20th of the season, putting Vancouver comfortably ahead 4-1.
Schmidt would add an empty-net goal to make it 5-1, before Seattle got a late goal with the extra attacker to make the final score 5-2.
Sunday’s win improves the Giants’ overall record to 29-27-4-0 (62 points), which is two points ahead of the Kelowna Rockets for sixth place in the Western Conference Standings. Vancouver is now three points away from clinching a playoff spot.
Next, Giants head to Prince George next weekend for two games against the Cougars, on Friday and Saturday.
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