Saturday night at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops the Vancouver Giants earned the sixth consecutive victory over the Kamloops Blazers, defeating them by a 5-4 score.
Justin Sourdif paced the Giants (43-14-2-2) offence with three assists while Aidan Barfoot, Bowen Byram, Davis Koch, Tristen Nielsen, and Milos Roman all scored goals.
Trent Miner stopped 26 of the 30 shots he faced in the Vancouver net, while the tandem of Dylan Ferguson and Dylan Garand went 23-for-28 for Kamloops.
Jermaine Loewen scored twice for Kamloops while Connor Zary added two assists.
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BOX SCORE
1st Period:
Vancouver’s Barfoot opened the scoring for the Giants at 3:09 when he tipped home a Dmytriw pass for his fourth of the season. Sourdif’s first of three assists on the night also came on that play.
One minute and 13 seconds later, Kamloops answered when Brodi Stuart knocked home his own rebound past Miner at the right side of the goal.
G-Men’s Byram restored the Giants lead at the 15:50 mark, when he snuck the right side of the goal and slid a Jadon Joseph pass by Ferguson for his 23rd of the season.
Shots: 12-8 Vancouver
2nd Period:
Kamloops’ Jermaine Loewen evened the score at 2-2 for Kamloops, when he deflected a Connor Zary feed home from in front of the net. Loewen’s first of two on the night at 4:41.
Then one minute and 13 seconds later, the Giants took the lead again when Koch one-timed a Sourdif pass through a defender and between the pads of Ferguson to make the score 3-2. Plouffe added the second assist.
Vancouver’s Nielsen extended Vancouver’s lead to 4-2 when he beat Ferguson with a shot from above the right-wing circle off a slick feed from Lukas Svejkovsky. That spelled the end of the night for Blazers starter Ferguson.
Giants Roman extended his point streak to eight games, when he slid a low shot past the left pad of Grand and in at 8:24. It wrapped up a stretch of three goals for Vancouver in two minutes and 30 seconds. Byram and Sourdif both earned assists.
With 25 seconds remaining in the period, Blazer Loewen streaked down the left-wing, and tipped a Kobe Mohr feed up and over the right shoulder of Miner to make it a 5-3 game.
Shots: 15-7 Vancouver
3rd Period:
At 5:08 into the third, the Blazers inched back within one goal when Ryley Appelt registered his second goal of the season off a shot from the left-wing circle off a setup from Zary.
But, despite a large territorial advantage in the third period, that’s as close as Kamloops would get to completing their comeback.
Shots: 15-1 Kamloops
Next Giants Game is Sunday, at 4 p.m. back home at Langley Events Centre. Once again, the G-Men will take on Kamloops.
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BY THE NUMBERS
• Final score: Vancouver 5 – Kamloops 4
• Final shots: 30-28 Kamloops
• Miner: 26/30 saves for Vancouver (22-4-1-1)
• Ferguson: 12/16 saves for Kamloops
• Grand: 11/12 saves for Kamloops (6-7-0-1)
• Vancouver:1/2 on the power play
• Kamloops: 0/3 on the power play
• 3 Stars: 1) Justin Sourdif (VAN – 3A); 2) Jermaine Loewen (KAM – 2G); 3) Connor Zary (KAM – 2A)
• With the win, the Giants improved their road record to 19-8-1-1.
• They are now 6-0 against Kamloops for the season and are 3-0 both at home and on the road.
• During the course of his eight-game point streak, Roman has now scored five goals along with seven assists for 12 points.
• Byram currently sits one goal shy of matching Kevin Connauton’s single-season record for goals by a Giants defenceman.
• The Giants are now 20-2-0-2 since Jan. 6.
