The Vancouver Giants went into tonight trying to extend their home undefeated streak to eight wins and no losses. The G-Men would have a tough time of it though as they were facing the Brandon Wheat Kings who came in smoking hot, boasting the best PP percentage in the WHL, at 31.3%. The Giants boasted the best PK percentage in the dub, with 93.3% kill tally. However, the Wheaties had won 5 of their last 6 earning a point in that sixth game as they went down in a shootout. It promised to be a battle of champions, but ended up more of strategic defensive duel with bizarre goals, and tight checking being the order of the evening.

The Giants weathered three straight penalties to start the game, one of which the closest ref to play waived off and the second ref at centre-ice called. It was a goalie interference penalty and Garet Hunt was tagged for the infraction after deftly stripping the goalie of the puck behind the net and then having the Wheat King ‘tender fall over dramatically. The Giants were the first on the board though, but not until Milan Lucic dropped the gloves with big Mark Louis. It was toe to toe battle, with the combatants exchanging blows and Milan eventually getting the higher hit count in the end, but neither player going down. It elevated the small crowd of 5900 and brought a bit of energy into the building. The goal came from some odd pressure in the Brandon zone as JD Watt pressed behind the net with the puck going to the Brandon player who drifted the puck back behind the net. Tyler Plante had already slid to the other post and JD tucked the puck in the net from behind on the open side, for an unassisted tally of the bizarre variety. The Wheat Kings would get one back on their much vaunted PP, when Jonathon Blum would get tagged for hooking. Jeff Topilko would get the tally off of a puck that either found its way through traffic, or was deflected in front of the net, as Tyson Sexsmith reacted late to it and seemed surprised by it going in.

.The second would start out slowly with the Wheat Kings pressuring the Giant players all over the ice. The Brandon team used their speed to best advantage and was winning most of the puck battles all night long. At times the Giants seemed disinterested in working hard to gain possession of the puck and uncharacteristically gave away the puck in their defensive zone with surprising frequency. Part of that was the pressure that the Wheaties were bringing to the fore as they demonstrated why they were on such a hot streak as of late, but a lot of it was just sloppy play by the Giants themselves. The ice also seemed pretty choppy as several players went down and the puck bounced around like a Mexican jumping bean all night long.

The Giants would go up by one early in the second on a PP of their own. Brendan Mikkelson fed the puck down to Tim Kraus and Kraus tried a cross ice pass which was intercepted in the high slot by Lucic. Brandon goalie Plante had already committed to the pass and left the goal-mouth wide open and as he slid across the crease Lucic deposited a writer in the back of the net. Another odd goal on a night where both ‘tenders played fairly solidly. The teams would stay that way throughout the second with the Giants failing to capitalize on the PP opportunities the Wheaties had given them early on in the second and then turning around and making some dumb plays to garner a few disadvantages of their own to end the middle stanza.

Brandon opened the shootout with Tyson Sexsmith snapping a puck, labelled for the top corner, out of the air with his blindingly quick glove. Tim Kraus weaved an deked before snapping the puck high into the twine to put the Giants up by one. Tyson stoned the next guy with a nice pad save, and Cody Franson failed to score on his opportunity. Sexsmith bricked up the net and the Giants won without having to send a third shooter out to try his luck. Tyson got his seventh win and third shootout win of the season, and as the boys on the radio said is making a strong case to be called a money goaltender. Sexsmith remains undefeated this season as Don Hay continues to switch ‘tenders for every game..

The Giants went 1 for 8 on the PP while holding the razor sharp Brandon PP to 1 for 7. the shots were 34-27 in favour of the G-Men. Not exactly the barn-burner I was hoping for but its always good to see two teams battle it out like that in end. I just wish the better Giants team would have shown up to truly test their mettle. Sexsmith earned the win which should probably have gone Brandon’s way getting a third star for his efforts. The Giants next opponent is the Kelowna Rockets who are lacking their fire-power of old but are sure to bring their hard-working style of play to the Coliseum. The Giants will need to ready to put on the hardhats and grind out the win with some effort of their own. The game will be on Friday night October 27th, and the puck drops at 7:30pm.

Three Stars
1 – Milan Lucic
2 – Tyler Plante
3 – Tyson Sexsmith