The Giants ended up on the right side of a hard-working affair with both teams willing to gut it out for the full sixty. After trimming the T-Birds 2-1 last night in Seattle, the Rebels showed up as a quintessential Sutter team willing to pay the price to get the win. The real difference was that the Giants showed up to do the same. After phoning in their last two games the real Giants showed up complete with hard-hats and work boots and it made all the difference in a close-checking, stick-handling in a phone booth, kind of game. The return of Cody Franson and Kendall McArdle motivated the squad to fight for the win. After playing the first to a draw the Giants scored late in the second to go up by one and then later in the third to salt away the game. Garet Hunt scored a beautiful empty-netter with time still on the clock in the game, but it wasn’t counted in the final tally.

The two teams played the first tight and hard. Defensive responsibility was the word of the day as both teams made sure they were solid in there own end before venturing out into the offensive zone. That said - it was not a boring first as both teams were willing to take the hit to make the play and neither squad backed down from their clean hard checks, aggressive fore-check, or faltered in their positioning in the their own zones. The shots were 8 – 6 in favour of the Giants by the end of the first and it was an even period. The whistles were mostly quiet in the first as the refs allowed the players latitude to play physical yet not cheap hockey.



It took ‘til late in the period for the Giants to get the first goal of the game and it came from a seemingly unlikely source unless you were watching their play up until that point. Garet Hunt got a hard-working goal which involved a bit of luck but should not take away from the effort required to create the chance. Kenton Dulle playing with Hunt and Craig Cunningham, was playing probably his best game of a season which has seen him learn and grow from the start of the season. Cunningham got the puck to Dulle in the neutral zone and Dulle cut in along the right wing, making a nice move to get clear and feathering the puck back to Garet coming down the slot. Hunt drove a hard shot on the net handcuffing James Reimer. Patrick Kozyra cutting back to his own net rolled over Reimer tumbling the whole mess including the puck into the net. The Rebels got a very late breakaway in the second and with a wide open chance Tyson Sexsmith flashed the leather to rob them of a goal with 10 seconds left in the middle frame, keeping his team up by one.

The hard hats went back on in third (yes even JD Watt was wearing a lid tonight ) and the only real criticism I had for the Giants game was that were not going to net to create traffic and that they would give up too easily carrying the puck into the offensive zone by cutting to the side boards. To the Rebels credit though, they play a very good positional game. All game long the Giants were getting good shots to the net only to have the rebounds swept away because they did not have bodies going to the net. They were trying to make the pretty pass instead of taking the rubber hard to the crease when they had the opportunity. However, the Vancouver squad managed to merge those two things for their coffin nail goal at 16:30 of the third.

Timmy Kraus playing with Kendall McArdle and Spencer Machacek, got the insurance marker off of a nice rush to the net. Spencer Machacek crossed the line at speed dishing off to McArdle coming down the slot, who chipped the puck across to Tim Kraus. Kraus slipped the puck between the wickets on Reimer to put the Giants up by two and give them that breathing room they’d been fighting for. The Rebels pulled their goalie at the tail-end of a late period penalty taken by Brendan Mikkelson, but to no avail. With seconds left in the game Garet Hunt stormed the Rebel zone and gathered the loose biscuit on the Rebel goal-line. With time ticking down, from the goal-line Hunt threw a beauty shot into the Rebels net for what seemed like an apropos empty netter. The replay did not show the red or green light go on before the puck tickled the top corner of the twine, but it was deemed no goal in the end. That did not dissuade the fans from jumping to their feet in appreciation of the effort though.

The G-Men out shot the Rebels 29-22, and neither team put one in on the PP, with the Red Deer squad going 0 for 6 and the Giants 0 for 2. It was hard fought grinding game which was exciting as any game filled with a plethora of goals to cheer on. Tyson Sexsmith flashed the glove leather a few times to rob some good shots and out and out robbed the one clean breakaway he saw. The Giants benefited from some luck as well as on one of the power plays the Rebels had they had a wide open net and clanged the puck off the red metal to allow the Giants to remain up by one. Neither team should be disappointed with their effort and although the home team got the win, the visitors were full money for effort and commitment tonight and their fans should be proud at how hard they fought. The crowd was massive as well, with over 10,000 bodies packing the seats.

The Giants get a bit of break before they begin their longest road trip of the season. With yet another sweep through the Alberta finishing off in BC and the US. The Giants could very well have some personnel changes by that road trip as they tweak their line-up before the trade deadline on Wednesday, in anticipation of a run for the Memorial Cup. The G-Men next suit up on Friday January 12th in Medicine Hat at The Arena for a tilt which could be a peek into a future WHL final. The game will be broadcast on Shaw, and the puck drops at 7:30 pm local time, 6:30 pm Pacific.

Three Stars
1 – Garet Hunt
2 – Kenton Dulle
3 – Tyson Sexsmith