Vancouver Giants fell behind the visiting Kelowna Rockets on Saturday night at Langley Events Centre and couldn’t catch up, falling 5-2.
Ethan Mittelsteadt and Aaron Obobaifo scored the Giants goals, both of which came on the power play.
The Giants found themselves down 3-1 entering the third period and pushed hard to tie the game, firing 19 shots on goal, but 4-2 was as close as they’d get. Kelowna goaltender Josh Banini finished the night with 31 saves on 33 shots.
Giants head coach Parker Burgess said the teeam was “a little bit flat” in the beginning.
“Just not enough urgency right off the bat.”
“We found our game in the third period, but I thought kind of a B game in the first and second period,” Burgess commented.
“Their goalie played well. We just weren’t able to generate enough. A couple bad bounces on [their] second and third goals. You’ve got to earn your luck.”
Giants’ overall record is now 7-8-0-1, while the Rockets improve to 5-5-1-1.
Rockets scored the first goal less than three minutes in, when Wetsch beat Pyne on a low shot from the right circle.
Vancouver tied it on a power play a few minutes later off a point shot from Mittelsteadt.
Kelowna pushed back and controlled the remainder of the first period, eventually getting rewarded at 13:37 when Henderson’s point shot changed direction on its way through to give Kelowna a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Fifty-six seconds into the middle frame, Poletin extended the visitors’ lead to 3-1 on the power play when his pass from the goal line went off a Giants stick and into their own net.
Six minutes later, Kelowna scored another power play goal, this time when Iginla rushed the net and took a pass from Poletin before deking and scoring his third of the season to make it 4-1.
Obobaifo gave the Giants some life late in the third period when he snuck one under the arm of Banini from the bumper position during 6-on-4 action.
Wetsch added an empty-net goal to make the final score 5-2.
Next, Giants host Prince George this afternoon, Sunday, Nov. 2 at 4 p.m. at Langley Events Centre.