The Vancouver Giants wrapped up their pre-season games on Saturday night (Sept. 17) as they faced off against the Kelowna Rockets at Cam Neely Arena in Maple Ridge.
This game comes one night after the Giants traveled to Kelowna for another exhibition match, where they lost by a score of 7-3.
However, this time, the Giants managed to scratch and claw their way to a win, which gave them the only win of their entire pre-season.
Colton Roberts was able to play in front of a home crowd at Cam Neely Arena and even scored the first goal of the game. (Brandon Tucker/The News)
While the first period remained scoreless, the Giants kicked things into gear in the second period where they scored two powerplay goals.
The first of these goals came just after seven minutes into the period, when Maple Ridge-born Colton Roberts found the back of the net in front of a hometown crowd with assists from teammates Sammy May and Jacob Boucher.
Almost ten minutes later, winger Jaden Lipinski followed suit, sending the puck past the Rockets goaltender after getting assisted by Damian Palmieri and Kyren Gronick.
The Giants experienced a bit of a scare when the Rockets, refusing to go away quietly, scored their own powerplay goal less than 30 seconds into the third period.
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After the Giants defencemen Brenden Pentecost was awarded a two-minute penalty for cross checking with less than a minute left in the second period, the home team started the third period with only four men on the ice, where it took Gabriel Szturc of the Rockets only 11 seconds to make them pay for their mistake.
Following the example set by the Giants, the Rockets went and scored their second powerplay goal of the period nearly 14 minutes later.
Once Kyle Bochek and Ethan McEneany of the Giants were both sentenced to two-minute penalties, along with Kelowna’s Max Graham, the Rockets used their one-man advantage to allow Rilen Kovacevic to score and tie up the game.
Even with this minor setback, the Giants refused to give up, which let them score a go-ahead goal with just over a minute left in the third period.
READ ALSO: Close, but not quite; Vancouver Giants lose narrow pre-season battles
Jaden Lipinski stepped into the spotlight once again for his second goal of the night. This time, his assist came from forward Ethan Semeniuk.
The Giants managed to hold off the Rockets until the final buzzer, finishing the game with a winning score of 3-2.
Now that the Giants have wrapped up their pre-season schedule, they’ll be gearing up for their regular season home opener at the Langley Events Centre on Sept. 23 against the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Tickets to go and watch the Vancouver Giants can be purchased at https://vancouvergiants.com/tickets.
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