Vancouver Giants were celebrating following an overtime win on the road against Seattle Thunderbirds on Sunday.
G-men captain Ryan Lin netted the overtime winner for the Vancouver Giants, a 3-2 victory at accesso ShoWare Center.
Giants took a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes and 2-1 lead after two periods. Seattle tied it late in the third period, forcing overtime. After the Giants killed off a penalty in overtime, Lin put in a rebound off a Mathis Preston shot to give the Giants the victory.
Blake Chorney and Misha Volotovskii provided the goals in regulation for Vancouver. Burke Hood made 27 saves on 29 shots to grab his 18th win, while the Giants’ penalty kill played a huge part in the win, going 5-for-5.
After back-to-back losses to the Royals, Giants Assistant Coach Gaelan Patterson was savoring the win.
“We were pretty happy with our response from the prior two games against Victoria,” Patterson commented.
“We didn’t feel like that was us. Excellent on the [penalty kill]. The boys really dug in and did a great job tonight.”
Ashton Cumby and Cameron Schmidt each scored for Seattle.
Chorney opened the scoring for the Giants late in the first period after receiving a pass in front of the net from Jakob Oreskovic, who lost his coverage in the right corner.
The Giants extended their lead at the 7:45 mark of the second period when Torretto Marrelli threw the puck from the corner to the slot. The puck eventually found Volotovskii’s stick, and he backhanded a shot past goaltender Marek Sklenicka to make it 2-0 for Vancouver.
In the final minute of the second period, a strong shift from Seattle eventually led to a goal from Cumby, cutting Vancouver’s 2-0 lead to 2-1.
The Giants killed off two consecutive penalties to begin the third period and hold their lead, but only until Schmidt flew off the bench and burst into the Vancouver zone with speed, before ripping a shot home to tie the game 2-2 with 5:34 left in the third period.
Vancouver was whistled for a tripping infraction with only 45 seconds left in regulation, but killed it off, leading to 4-on-4 play for most of the overtime.
Things finally returned to 3-on-3, and before long, Lin ended the game with only 32 seconds left in OT with his 14th goal of the season.
Lin was named third star of the game.
Giants wrap up their regular season with a home-and-home with Kamloops, Friday, March 20, at the Kamloops Sandman Centre at 7 p.m. then Saturday, March 21, at Langley Events Centre at 7 p.m.