Despite a hat-trick from Tyler Thorpe, the Vancouver Giants failed to pick up two points on Friday night, Oct. 13, losing 6-3 to the visiting Swift Current Broncos at the Langley Events Centre.
With the loss, the Giants are now 2-3-0-0 this season.
The Broncos exploded for five consecutive second period goals and had their power play go 3-for-7, which were both factors in their victory. Swift Current improved to 3-4-1 this season.
Broncos got on the board first early in this one on a power play, when forward Connor Hvidston netted his sixth goal of the season at the 5:08 mark.
Just under 10 minutes later, the Giants responded with a power play marker of their own, after Thorpe intercepted a pass in his own zone and carried the puck the full length of the ice before ripping a shot top corner on the glove side to tie the game.
Tyler Thorpe tucked thrice tonight. @WHLGiants | #WHLHatTricks pic.twitter.com/xCfN7srKcW
— The WHL (@TheWHL) October 14, 2023
Just 1:15 into the second, Vancouver grabbed the lead after Thorpe caused a turnover in the offensive zone while shorthanded, which allowed Jaden Lipinski to take the puck to the crease, where Thorpe found a loose puck and put home the rebound.
Unfortunately for the Giants, not only was their lead short-lived, but the Broncos would go on to score five consecutive goals.
Josh Filmon tied the game at the 3:07 mark, and then Tyson Laventure gave Swift Current the lead on the power play several minutes later.
Matthew Ward then sniped one from the slot to make it 4-2 midway through the second period.
Finally, North Vancouver native Ty Coupland scored twice within a 44-second span to make ti 6-2 before the period ended.
Thorpe would score again in the third period to complete the hat-trick, but that was as close as the Giants would get.
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Head Coach Manny Viveiros thought it “was a good first period.”
Second period, I thought everything was going good until we took an undisciplined penalty. And then we just lost our cool and we completely got away from any type of structure of our game.
If you look at both teams Viveiros estimated there was probably 14, 15 great scoring chances for both sides.
“We could have scored easily six or seven,” Viveiros said.
But the message to the kids after the game was that: ‘If you want to be good in this league or if you want to get to that next level, you’re going to have to learn how to play at both ends of the ice and the hardest area to play is in your own zone sometimes. It’s a good lesson. We’re a young group and we’re going to make these mistakes and stuff like that, but we’ve got to make sure we’re learning from that. I like how we responded in the third period.”
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Up next, Giants host the Medicine Hat Tigers on Wednesday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m., when Gavin McKenna, a projected top-3 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, comes to town. McKenna, from Whitehorse, Yukon, has a late 2007-birthday, so he is still 15, and has already put up 29 points in 23 career WHL games. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
