Coming off of a very disappointing loss versus the Kamloops Blazers (who the Giants have yet to beat this season) and recovering from a hard and heavy bag skate after letting the lead slip by not continuing to work when they had the lead, the Giants were motivated tonight to turn around their game. Its was all hands on deck as 13 different players registered at least a point, scoring goals by putting on the hard-hats, driving the net, drawing penalties and scoring those greasy goals on the doorstep. Don Hay challenged his boys to continue to work regardless of the score, pressed for secondary scoring and for the “first year guys” (not rookies) to contribute.

Contribute they did as Craig Cunningham tallied his first ever WHL point, James Wright scored two hard fought goals while adding two assists and Lance Bouma scored a late game PP goal - the 16 year olds had arrived. Spencer Machacek tallied a hat trick by playing like he did last season when wheeling on a line with Brule, standing at the edge of the blue paint, something which has been missing from Spencer’s regular game this year. Journeyman defenseman Jonathon Blum managed four helpers with some smart play, by driving the net and taking the shot when there was an opening.

The Giants opened the scoring 6:57 into the first on the PP. Brendan Mikkelson powered a seeing eye puck through traffic to beat Alex Archibald. The Bruins looked a bit flat and were having a tough time keeping up and an even tougher time clearing the front of the their net of bodies and pucks all night long. The Giants padded their lead later in the period when Machacek put in his first of three on the night. Blum got a shot through to Archibald and Machacek snuck home the rebound from the doorstep. The referees for the evening made some extremely odd and poor judgment calls but in the end it did not affect the out-come of the game as the weird ones seemed to be against the home team for the most part. The Giants weathered a late period flurry and Tyson Sexsmith, who had to be good on the PK tonight, flashed the leather to rob the Bruins of any momentum with seconds left in the first.

The home squad came out flying in the second and pressed hard in the offensive zone. James Wright was rewarded 2:41 into the middle frame off of yet another scramble in front of the net. Brett Festerling made some nice moves to get the open shot on Archibald and Wright slid the loose puck past the Chilliwack goalie to put his team up by three. Machacek tallied his second of the night about ten minutes later on the PP. Once again going to the net, Spencer found the loose biscuit and got it past Archibald who had a hard time controlling rebounds tonight and was frequently left high and dry by his team, not a good combination. Blum notched his third assist and Milan Lucic added a helper on the play. Spencer got his hat-trick goal off of a deflection with time ticking down in the second. Some gritty work by Wright in the corners and some fantastic stick handling and patience on the part of Festerling opened up the ice. Fester threw the puck at the net and Machacek standing at the side angled it past the Bruin net-minder.

The third saw the young guys get more ice-time and the whistles come back out of the pockets after a quiet second penalty-wise. The Bruins being frustrated tried to draw the Giants into losing their cool which to a man they did not. One penalty came off the rush as Lucic was hooked from behind on a partial breakaway, but for some reason was given a hooking penalty while the guy who hooked him garnered a slashing penalty – as I said some very odd officiating. James Wright tallied his second of the night four minutes into the third going to the net with Brent Regner on an odd-man rush, instigated by the d-man who took the puck from the neutral zone hard to the net before dishing off to Wright. The Giants rounded out the scoring with two more hard fought goals, scored by the gritty grinders. Garet Hunt scored his fifth of the campaign, getting a point for his line-mate Craig Cunningham (his first point in the dub), and late in the game on the PP Lance Bouma scored another loose puck goal off of a Blum shot from the point. Sexsmith did not see a lot of rubber but had to be good to preserve the shutout and played one of his best games challenging when he needed to and sitting back when necessary.

The Giants went 3 for 8 on the PP, while holding the visitors to 0 for 6. The Vancouver squad out shot the Chilliwack crew 44 to 20. Machacek was rewarded three times for going to the net. Jonathon Blum added four assists and the 16 year olds became first years and not rookies. Brent Regner had a great game defensively as well as offensively. Festerling gets better with each game. Tim Kraus wheeled and dealed, making some beautiful passes which did not end up in the back of the net, but created the chances. Really - not one of the Giants did not show up and that was what made this blow out worth watching as they did not run up the score shortening their bench but by lengthening it. 15 year olds Evander Kane and Mike Piluso did not look out of place and had some solid ice-time in the third. With JD Watt and four other top players out of the line-up it was gratifying to watch the team gel like they did.

The Giants head up the valley tomorrow for the second part of this home at home series and it’s sure to be a different game. I expect the Bruins to be hungry to get some pride back in front of their home crowd and work a lot harder than they did tonight. I also expect there to be a few more fists flying as there are still a few scores to be settled. The Giants turned the other cheek tonight, but tomorrow evening I don’t think we’ll see that being the case. Should be some good hard-nosed hockey and I expect that Blaine Neufeld will get his second start as a Giant and this time complete the game. The puck drops at Prospera Centre at 5pm PST.

Three Stars
1 – Spencer Machacek
2 – Jonathon Blum
3 – James Wright