Vancouver Giants were within reach of a win in Kamloops Friday, but it wasn’t their night, as a Blazer surge in the third took them down 7-3 at the Sandman Centre.
Giants Assistant Coach Gaelan Patterson described it as a “very offensively driven game for both teams. We get into the third and we’re a goal away and we have a couple opportunities. It gets away from us in the end, but it was a close game. We were happy with the work ethic that we put in.”
Kamloops draft-eligible forward JP Hurlbert scored three times.
Joe Iginla, Lance McCloskey and Mathis Preston each scored for Vancouver. Preston’s two point night (1G-1A) extended his point streak to six games (2G-6A).
In addition to Hurlbert’s three goals, Kamloops got contributions from Vit Zahejsky (two goals), Nathan Behm and Tommy Lafreniere.
Iginla opened the scoring for the Giants on an early power play, snapping the puck past the blocker of Edmonstone for his 14th tally of the season after receiving a pass from Preston.
Hurlbert tied the contest 1-1 less than a minute later on the Blazers’ first power play of the contest, reaching the 40-goal plateau in the process.
McCloskey restored the Giants’ lead only 10 seconds later with a seeing eye point shot for his fourth goal of the season.
Zahejsky answered on the Blazers’ second power play, tying the score 2-2 at the 12:39 mark of the opening period.
He scored again just a few minutes later at even strength to give Kamloops’ their first lead of the night.
Hurlbert picked up his second goal of the evening early in the second period to make the score 4-2 for the home side.
Less than five minutes later, Preston beat Edmonstone with an incredible snap shot from the right circle on a Giants power play to cut the lead to 4-3.
Behm restored the Blazers’ two-goal cushion when he put home a pass from Harrison Brunicke during 4-on-4 play at the 7:21 mark of the third period.
Vancouver pushed hard when they got a power play late in the third period and pulled the goalie to make it a 6-on-4, but Edmonstone made several fantastic saves. Lafreniere hit the empty net with 1:44 remaining to make the score 6-3.
Hurlbert made it 7-3 with 37 seconds remaining in regulation.
Giants, currently at the bottom of the western conference, with 25 wins in 67 games, are out of the playoffs. They will wrap up their regular season tonight at home against Kamloops at 7 p.m.