by Ian McNaughton/Special to Black Press
It was a tough night all around for the Vancouver Giants, who found themselves on the wrong end of a 5-1 defeat to the Seattle Thunderbirds Saturday night.
The Giants were stumped in their effort to get past T-Birds goalie Liam Hughes as he made 41 saves and earned the first star on the night, the second time in as many games this season against Vancouver he has earned the accolade now having made 72 of 74 shots in a pair of victories.
Vancouver fell to 10-3-2-0 on the Western Hockey League season with two of those regulation defeats at the hands of the T-Birds (7-3-2-0).
Seattle started the scoring 8:08 into the first period thanks to Matthew Wedman. Coming in off a Noah Volcan shot, the puck went of Wedman and past David Tendeck.
The visitors doubled the lead later in the period when Samuel Ho intercepted a clearing attempt off the boards and was able to walk in and fire home his first of the season.
The Thunderbirds blew the game open with goals 76 seconds apart early in the second as Noah Philp and Wedman each struck, ending Tendeck’s night after scoring four goals on a dozen shots.
Vancouver’s offence was aggressive but could not seem to find ways to finish.
Milos Roman got on the board in third period and scored his first goal since October 14 but that was all the Giants could muster offensively, despite three third period power plays, including a 58-second two-man advantage.
Seattle’s Dillon Hamaliuk would make it 5-1, making a nifty move to cut in all alone on Trent Miner and slip the puck past the Giants goaltender. It was the lone puck to elude Miner on a dozen shots.
Despite 42 shots and just one goal, Vancouver head coach Michael Dyck is confident his team will rediscover their offensive game.
“There are no concerns. I think that if we play the game the right way, the goals will come,” he said.
Although his team lost, Dyck was happy with his team’s over the second half of the game, where they controlled the shot clock and had the majority of the scoring chances.
“I like the last 30 minutes honestly. Through most of the second and the first, we weren’t ready to play, and they were,” he said.
The special teams were a mixed bag on Saturday for the Giants. The Giants penalty kill was effective, holding the league’s second-best penalty kill to no goals on three chances. The powerplay was a different story as the Giants went 0 for 7 and could not get anything past Hughes.
“The first 20 minutes on powerplay stunk. Although we were well prepared, we didn’t execute… when your powerplay is struggling like ours, you have to simplify it,” Dyck said.
Despite the loss, the Giants remain at the very top of the B.C. division and the Western conference with their record of 10-3-2-0 and they’ll look to climb back into the win column today (Sunday).
That’s when the team hosts the Brandon Wheat Kings at Langley Events Centre at 4 p.m. This game is also trick- or-suite night where fans who dress up for Halloween can trick-or-treat in the suites during intermission.
