After their recent mini-slide the Giants were ready to re-establish their winning ways, and climb the WHL ladder once again. This resurrection began last night as the G-Men trounced the Winterhawks 6-1, in Portland and the Giants were hoping to reinforce their home dominance tonight. A crowd of 7,500, but looking much smaller, saw what ended up being a lively tilt after a tight first period where neither team took control of the play.

The first opened up eerily similar to their last home game where a heavyweight battle broke out between Boogaard and Lucic off the drop of the puck. This time a mere 2 seconds in it was Garet Hunt who dropped the gloves with James McEwan for a toe to toe battle. McEwan had a few inches on Hunt, but as usual the game Garet stood in there and gave as well as he got. Both combatants got in their blows and in the end it was more of a draw, with McEwan getting in some late hits to possibly get the edge. The Giants brought a much improved forecheck to the ice and were consistently sending in two forwards to press in the offensive zone. Despite all that work they couldn’t get the puck to the net and spent a lot of the time along the boards and playing perimeter hockey. As a result, Kristofer Westblom saw every shot and was able to make the save and cover any rebounds without goal mouth pressure. The two teams were five minutes into the game before either squad tallied a shot and it sat at 1-1 for shots for some time until they were both knotted at 3-3. Some late PP opportunities though allowed the Giants to get a bit more momentum and elevate their shot count to double digits (10) by the end of the first.

After wasting their first period PPs by not getting traffic in front of the net and even though they maintained some solid pressure in the offensive zone, the Vancouver squad did not look in danger of scoring in the first. The Giants finally scored on the man-advantage early in the second, not by moving the puck around the Kelowna zone, but off of a brilliant up ice pass by Tyson Sexsmith, who was solid but did not have to be spectacular this night. Sexsmith found Spencer Machacek standing on the Kelowna blue line completing a sweet tape to tape two line pass to the forward. Machacek dished the puck off to a streaking Michal Repik who continued his scoring ways by cutting in and snapping the puck past Westblom. The Giants would pad their lead with a mere five seconds left in the second. The G-Men had squandered some PP opportunities and weathered a few phantom calls thrown their way during the middle stanza, but were rewarded for a lot of their hard work at the end of the period. With seconds ticking down the Giants could have dumped the puck in and been satisfied being up by one, but JD Watt had other ideas. Cody Franson, who got a monkey off his back tonight by getting points for the first time in five games, found Watt in the neutral zone and its was all JD after that. Watt stormed the Rocket zone and cut behind the net holding off the Kelowna defense long enough to make a nice pass out front to Milan Lucic who pounded the puck past Westblom from close in. Watt had a particularly energetic game after being on a bit of a slide after leading the team early in the season.

The Giants continued their aggressive play throughout the third pressing the Kelowna squad and not giving them room to move the puck or make plays and in the process causing the visitors to take clutchy kinds of penalties. The home team capitalised on one of the PPs early in the third off of a heads-up play by Tim Kraus. Kraus gathered the puck in the neutral zone and coming into the Kelowna zone drifted a flip pass back to Franson at the point who wired a huge one-timer past Westblom who had traffic in font of the net and saw the shot too late as it creased the top corner. The Giants exhibited good team play and support when Flatters was tagged for an instigator coming to the assistance of Craig Cunningham who was levelled cheaply in the Kelowna zone. It was McEwan again and he had his visored helmet firmly on his head for the majority of the tilt, but that did not stop Flatters from pasting him with blow after blow. McEwan did not give in by any stretch but found himself more in the act of wrestling than punching as Flatters’ hand had to be getting sore from battering McEwan. The game was delayed a few minutes while they scraped blood from the ice.

The G-Men put the boots in a few minutes later as James Wright scored his second goal of the season earning it with a very solid night hitting and making some smart plays, for a rookie. Kyle Lamb got the puck to Milan Lucic who blasted it at the net and missed. The puck caromed off the end boards and a wily Wright, going to the net (always a good idea), was there to tuck the puck behind Westblom who was playing the shot. James Wright had a very good night and was visible every time he stepped on the ice ending up a very deserved +2 and a goal for his trouble and frankly I felt he earned one of the stars for his effort. The Giants cruised to the victory as they continued to strip the Kelowna players of the puck in all zones and not allow the Rocket team to get a shot through to Sexsmith, guaranteeing the shutout for the young ‘tender.

The Giants brought the kind of work ethic I love to see back to their game and although they didn’t screen the opposing net nearly enough in my opinion, they pressed very hard in the offensive zone and forced the other guys to cough up the puck on a regular basis. Both of their PP goals came off the rush and not by working it in the zone. It felt like they were being too pretty on their PPs for the most part and going for that perfect pass/shot, instead of getting the puck to the net and looking for the rebounds. They did not crash or even plant a body in front of the net and even though they maintained puck possession they did not look to be a real threat on their PP pass-arounds. This is one of the reasons that this very successful team does not have a top power play in the league in my mind and something which needs to remedied before they form some bad habits. Hay is fond of saying that this isn’t skilled team it’s a working team which has to go to the hard places to score their goals and on the man-advantage they just aren’t doing that.

Anyway, the Giants out shot the Rockets 34-13, and went 2 for 8 on the PP, while holding their opponent to 0 for 8. The officiating was at times poor, but not criminal, however it did not seem entirely consistent due to Devin Klein calling phantom calls he caught out of the corner of eye and allowing some things go then calling something very similar at the other end of the ice.

The Giants lose five players to World Junior tryout camps beginning tomorrow and will have to refit their line-up for the rest of December. This can be an exciting time as Giants fans will get a look at some young APs (affiliate players), like 2006 first round bantam pick Evander Kane, second rounder Neil Manning and among other prospects and some of the current rookie players will get the chance to play some solid special teams minutes and find themselves with a bigger role on the team. Cody Franson, Brendan Mikkelson, and Kendall McArdle all have invites to the Canadian camp, while Mario Bliznak has a try-out with the Slovak team and Michal Repik will vie for a spot with the Czech squad. Good luck to all these players in their bids to play for their home countries. The Giants hit the ice next at home on Wed Dec 13th, puck drops at 7pm local time.

Three Stars
1 – Michal Repik
2 – Cody Franson
3 – Brett Festerling