Vancouver Giants recorded their first win of the season, a home ice victory over the Victoria Royals Friday night, Sept. 30, at the Langley Events Centre.

Ahead 2-1 with a period to play, the Giants scored twice while limiting the Victoria Royals to just three shots over those 20 minutes as Vancouver won 4-1.

“That’s the way we have got to play. I thought we were relentless on pucks, I thought we made some good decisions with the puck, I liked our forecheck. And when we didn’t have pressure, we did a really good job of being above the puck and I think we just wore them down,” said Giants coach Michael Dyck.

The teams were tied at one through 20 minutes as Ty Halaburda cashed in on a Vancouver power play, just seconds after the first of two Victoria penalties expired, shovelling a rebound past Royals goalie Campbell Arnold before Anthony Wilson pulled Victoria even just over two minutes later.

Ty Thorpe took first star honours as the Vancouver Giants recorded their first win of the season, a 4-1 home ice victory over Victoria on Friday, Sept. 30 at the Langley Events Centre. (Gary Ahuja/Special to Langley Advance Times)

Samuel Honzek struck for the eventual game-winner as he took a beautiful feed from Ty Thorpe and was able to avoid Arnold’s poke-check attempt and slip the puck into the open net with just over five minutes remaining in the period. The score stayed 2-1 for almost 20 periods before Kyren Gronick banged home a rebound from the edge of the crease and then 79 seconds later, Halaburda got a piece of Mazden Leslie’s point shot for his second of the game to make it 4-1 with under five minutes to play.

📹 Head Coach Michael Dyck with his thoughts on a hard earned 4-1 Giants win over Victoria for the first win of the season. pic.twitter.com/kpuRA4kMEL

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) October 1, 2022

The Giants had five players finish with multi-point games as Halaburda scored twice and Leslie and Thorpe both finished with two assists. Gronick and Honzek each had a goal and an assist with Honzek also finishing with a team-best +3 rating.

The game also marked the season debut of goaltender Jesper Vikman, who was at training camp with the Vegas Golden Knights. Vikman finished with 15 saves on 16 shots.

Giants goaltender Jesper Vikman, who was at training camp with the Vegas Golden Knights, returned for the team’s first win of the season, a 4-1 home ice victory over Victoria on Friday, Sept. 30 at the Langley Events Centre. (Rob Wilton/Special to Langley Advance Times)

Vancouver swept the three star awards with Thorpe, Honzek and Gronick earning the first, second and third star awards, respectively.

On Saturday night, Oct. 1, the Giants visited the Seattle Thunderbirds at the Accesso Showare Center.

Giants scored twice early in the third period but dropped a 6-4 decision, with two goals from Ty Thorpe, and scores by Samuel Honzek and Colton Roberts.

Thorpe was named second star of the game.

Next, Giants host Prince George Cougars at the Langley Events Centre on Friday night, Oct. 7. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m.