For seventh time in the 18-year history of their franchise, the Vancouver Giants have won 40 games in a single season.
Friday night, in front of 3,900-plus at the Langley Events Centre, the Vancouver Giants earned a 4-0 victory against the Victoria Royals.
Kaleb Bulych, Seth Bafaro, Lukas Svejkovsky, and Justin Sourdif all scored for the Giants while Arizona Coyotes prospect David Tendeck stopped all 26 shots fired his way en route to his 20th win of the season, the 50th win of his WHL career and his sixth career shutout.
Victoria goaltender Brock Gould stopped 30 of the 34 shots fired his way in defeat.
The win over the Royals (30-25-1-2) moves the Giants (40-14-2-1) to within one point of clinching the B.C. division banner.
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BOX SCORE
1st Period:
There was no scoring, with Victoria leading shots on goal 11-8.
2nd Period:
At 11:15 into the second period the G-Men got on the board when Kaleb Bulych wired home a shot from the right-wing point. Dallas Hines had the lone helper.
Then, with 15 seconds remaining in the period, Seth Bafaro extended Vancouver’s lead, when his shot from the right-wing point appeared to tip off a Royals defender and past Brock Gould.
Vancouver lead that period for shots on goal 11-5.
3rd Period:
At 5:36 of the third, Vancouver’s Lukas Svejkovsky made it 3-0 for the Giants when he left the penalty box, accepted a pass from Davis Koch and raced in on a two-on-one.
Gould stopped Svejkovsky’s initial attempt, but the rookie followed up on his own rebound and knocked home his seventh of the season.
Then, Giant’s Sourdif grabbed the game’s final goal at 16:26 of the final period of a feed from Milos Roman.
Sourdif’s 18th goal of the season moves him two goals shy of becoming just the third Giants 16-year-old to reach 20 goals in his rookie season.
This is the first of three games against the Victoria Royals this weekend. Next up, the Giants travel to Vancouver Island to compete against the Royals Saturday night.
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BY THE NUMBERS
• Final score: Vancouver 4 – Victoria 0
• Final shots: 34-26 Vancouver
• David Tendeck: 26/26 saves for Vancouver (20-10-1-1)
• Brock Gould: 30/34 saves for Victoria (6-10-0-1)
• Vancouver: 0/3 on the power play
• Victoria: 0/5 on the power play
3 Stars: 1) Vancouver’s David Tendeck with 26 saves and a shutout; 2) the Giant’s Justin Sourdif with one goal and one assist; and 3) G-Men’s Kaleb Bulych one goal
• Tendeck improved his season record against the Royals to 4-1-1-0 with a 1.80 goals-against-average and a .921 save percentage and one shutout.
* The Giants improved their record to 23-3-1-1 against teams from the B.C. division. They haven’t lost in regulation to a B.C. division opponent since Dec, 14’s game in Victoria.
• The Giants win, coupled with the Everett Silvertips loss in overtime, moves the Giants to within three points of Everett for first place in the Western Conference standings. The Giants have played two fewer games.
• With one single point the Giants will clinch their first B.C. division championship since the 2009-10 season.
• Sourdif has now recorded points in each of his past five games and has now recorded six goals and six assists for 12 points through 10 February games. His 18 goals are tops among all 2002-born WHL skaters.
