Vancouver Giants (13-11-1-1) dropped a 5-1 decision to the Tri-City Americans (12-10-2-1) Saturday night in Kennewick, WA.
Edge Lambert (2G, 1A), Krystof Hrabik (1G, 2A) and Sasha Mutala (3A) combined for nine points for the home side while goaltender Talyn Boyko turned aside 43 Vancouver shots.
Tristen Nielsen had the lone goal for Vancouver who got 14 saves combined from Trent Miner and David Tendeck.
At 3:51 into the first, Tristen Nielsen wired home his team-leading 14th goal from the right-wing circle off a pass from Bowen Byram.
Nielsen’s goal was Vancouver’s only of the night. The Americans caught fire and replied five straight goals to take their first victory since November 11th in Edmonton.
Connor Bouchard netted Tri-City’s first goal of the night on the power play, assisted by Luke Zazula and Sasha Mutala. The assists marks Zazula’s first point with the Americans since the 19-year-old defenceman was acquired from Kamloops on Wednesday.
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Edge Lambert scored the go-ahead goal for Tri-City off a feed from Connor Bouchard at 15:01 first period. The Americans carried the 2-1 lead into the intermission.
San Jose Barracuda prospect Krystof Hrabik set up Nick Bowman for Tri-City’s third goal mid-second period. Six minutes later Edge Lambert netted his second of the night, on the power play, with a shot from the slot. Lambert leads all Americans rookies in scoring with 8 goals and 6 assists this season. Tonight was his first ever multi point game.
Vancouver switched goaltenders putting David Tendeck in for Trent Miner to start the third period. Tendeck stopped all three shots faced, but Vancouver was unable generate offense and make a comeback.
Hrabik sealed Tri-City’s victory with an empty net goal, scored shorthanded, with 1:18 remaining.
Talyn Boyko played the full game in net for Tri-City stopping 43 of 44 shots faced. The second year netminder has now won four of five games he’s started in this season.
Giants are currently ranked seventh in the WHL Western Conference.
Giants win back-to-back OT victories
The night before, the Giants earned a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Spokane Chiefs (12-9-3-0) to take back-to-back games in overtime.
Friday night (Nov. 29) in Spokane, WA , Tristen Nielsen scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season on a breakaway at 3:41 of overtime completing the comeback for the Giants who trailed 2-0 after two periods.
Justin Sourdif and Milos Roman scored for the Giants in regulation while Seth Bafaro added two assists on the night. Adam Beckman and Erik Atchison responded with goals for Spokane.
David Tendeck stopped 20 of 22 for Vancouver while Lukas Parik made 33 saves for Spokane.
At 10:55 of the opening period Adam Beckman one-timed home a feed from Eli Zummack to put the Chiefs up 1-0.
Erik Atchison extended the Chiefs lead to 2-0 at 14:34 when he re-directed home a point-shot from Bobby Russell home for his fourth goal of the season.
After a scoreless second period, Justin Sourdif got the comeback attempt started for the Giants at 3:47 when he picked off a pass at the Chiefs blueline, raced in alone and wired a low shot home for his 11th of the season.
Milos Roman then tied the score at 2-2 at the 9:54 mark when he tipped home a pass from Seth Bafaro in close on Parik. For Roman it was his 12th of the season. Tristen Nielsen earned the second assist.
In overtime Tristen Nielsen ended the game at 3:41 on a backhand deke on a breakaway. Seth Bafaro started the play by intercepting a cross-crease pass in front of the Giants net before springing Nielsen down the left-wing side.
Final Score: Vancouver 3 – Spokane 2.
Tristen Nielsen now has four goals and four assists for eight points in his past five games.
Friday’s victory marked the first time this season that the Giants have won a game when trailing going into the third period.
Tristen Nielsen (7) and Justin Sourdif (6) combined for 13 shots on goal.
Friday marked the Giants debut for defenceman Connor Horning and forward Michal Kvasnica.
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Next Giants game: a Wednesday showdown with the Victoria Royals at 7:00 PM at Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena in Victoria.
Their next home game is against Spokane Chiefs Friday, Dec. 6 at the Langley Events Centre at 7:30 p.m.
