Vancouver Giants had a 4-1 over Victoria Royals going into the third period, but a comeback by Victoria that saw the hosts score three unanswered goals pushed the game to overtime Friday at Save on Foods Memorial Centre.
Nobody scored in the extra frame and then Aaron Obobaifo scored the shootout winner for a 5-4 Giants win.
Ryan Lin, Obobaifo, Tobias Tomik and Brett Olson each scored for the Giants. Obobaifo (1G-2A) and Olson (1G-1A), as well as Tyus Sparks (2A) had multi-point nights.
Ludovic Perreault and Nolan Stewart each scored twice for Victoria.
Overall, Giants Assistant Coach Gaelan Patterson was happy with the result.
“I thought we played a really good 40 minutes,” Patterson commented.
“I don’t think we started the third in a bad way by any means: I thought we were putting the pressure on, but then they get one and you tighten up a little bit and they get the next two to make it close.”
Lin scored the only goal of the first period with just 2:19 left in the period, when Sparks found him alone in the right dot off an offensive zone face-off win.
Perreault would tie the game 1-1 early in the second, bringing the teddy bears down with his sixth of the season.
The Giants responded with three goals in a span of 4:42, including two goals 21 seconds apart.
First, Obobaifo tapped in a pass from Cameron Schmidt on a power play to make it 2-1 for Vancouver.
Then 21 seconds after that, Tomik deflected in a shot from Leonardo Domenichelli to make it 3-1 with 6:55 remaining in the second period.
Olson notched his sixth of the season off a backdoor pass from Obobaifo off the rush to make it 4-1 for the Giants after 40 minutes.
Stewart cut into the Giants lead at the 6:22 mark of the second to get the home side within two.
Less than three minutes later, Stewart scored again to make it a one-goal contest at 4-3.
Perreault tied the game at the 12:04 mark of the third period.
Overtime solved nothing, despite a Giants power play that generated multiple good looks, as Ethan Eskit made six saves in the Royals crease in the extra frame to force a shootout.
Woodward scored first for Victoria, but Schmidt responded for the Giants.
Perreault had an opportunity to win it for the Royals with the shootout tied 1-1, but Hood kept things going.
Then as the fourth shooter, Obobaifo went top shelf to give the Giants the 2-1 edge.
Hood made the game-closing save on Wyatt Danyleyko to give Vancouver the 5-4 win.
Obobaifo was named third star of the game.
Giants host their Teddy Bear Toss game today at 7 p.m. Langley Events Centre and their Toy Drive game on Sunday at 4.