Giants Assistant Coach Gaelan Patterson described it as “a full 60-minute game,” a 4-2 road win over the Tri-City Americans on Tuesday night at Toyota Center where three different Vancouver Giants defencemen scored.
“Everybody was buying in and paying attention to the details,” Patterson said. “We had some moments where we were really buzzing. Getting up by a few goals, the confidence comes and then you can see our group and how they play with confidence was awesome…It’s great to see the guys and their character – with where we’re at in our season right now and the care factor they showed.”
Giants entered the third period with the score tied 1-1. Vancouver scored twice in a 96-second span midway through the final frame to make it 3-1 and then added another one five minutes later. All three third period goals came from defencemen: Ryan Lin, Ethan Mittelsteadt and Kaleb Hartmann.
Tri-City scored a goal in garbage time to make the final score 4-2.
Vancouver improves to 22-35-1-2 (47 points), while Tri-City drops to 25-29-4-1 (55 points). Tuesday was the Giants’ first road win since Dec. 18 at Victoria (7-4).
Jakob Oreskovic supplied the other goal for Vancouver, which came early in the first period. Kelton Pyne only had to face 16 shots on goal to register the win, as the Giants outshot the Americans 26-16. Vancouver’s penalty kill was stellar, going 6-for-7. Plus, the only power play goal they allowed happened with less than 10 seconds left in the game.
Gavin Garland and Alexander Laing each found the back of the net for the Americans.
Giants remain on the road to begin the weekend before coming home on Sunday to play Kelowna at Langley Events Centre. Puck drops at 4 p.m.