Hometown fans were brought to their feet numerous times cheering during Wednesday night’s fleecing of the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes.
In major junior men’s ice hockey action at Langley Events Centre (LEC) on Nov. 19, the Vancouver Giants found the back of the ’Canes net six times, jumping out to an early 3-0 lead – all before the six-minute mark in the first period – and they never looking back.
Giants forward Torretto Marrelli scored one of the goals (and reported two additional shots on goal) during Wednesday night’s game, and shared his thoughts in a post-game chat.
“Definitely a big win there out of the boys,” Marrelli said.
“We were working hard all night and came out with the ‘W.’ It’s nice to win that one. We had a few tough games there, but we came out strong tonight and it was a really good game.”
The win improves the Giants’ overall record to 9-12-0-1 and snaps a four-game losing streak. The Hurricanes drop to 8-16-0-1.
G-Men’s Marek Howell opened the scoring on a wrist shot from the left point just 35 seconds into the game, moments after Aaron Obobaifo hit the post.
Blake Chorney made it 2-0 for the Giants less than a minute later, when he stuffed home a rebound for his fifth goal of the season.
And before the six-minute mark, team captain Ty Halaburda tucked one under the arm of goaltender Leif Oaten from the left circle to make it 3-0 for Vancouver.
North Vancouver’s Kai Anderson got the Hurricanes on the board late in the first to make the score 3-1 for the Giants after 20 minutes of play.
Kade Duell made it a one-goal game midway through the second period when he shovelled home a rebound after a blocked shot led to a fortunate bounce for the visitors.
Just 62 seconds after that, Obobaifo connected with Cameron Schmidt off the rush on the power play to restore the Giants two-goal advantage.
Nine seconds into the third period, Schmidt stole the puck in the offensive zone in the right corner and found Halaburda in the front of the net, who made no mistake for his second of the night.
Owen Berge found the back of the net for Lethbridge several minutes later, but Marrelli put the game away for good when he netted the first goal of his career on a short-side snipe with less than five minutes remaining.
Hood was credited with stopping 23 of 25 shots on goal that night for the Giants, while Oaten was only able to halt 37 of 43 aimed at him, Giants assistant coach Wacey Rabbit commenting on his play after the game.
“Tonight was great from [Burke] Hood, our defencemen, our d-core, and our fourth line was amazing. I thought they brought a lot. When you have four lines going and there are character battles and you see some of the greasy goals like [Blake] Chorney, it gets everyone involved and everyone feels they’re a part of it. That was a big win for us,” Rabbit said.
“We didn’t get the results we wanted in the four-game slide, but you could feel a sense that they’re starting to believe in each other.”
Next up, the Giants are away in Penticton tonight (Friday, Nov. 21) for a game against the Penticton Vees, then back home again at LEC the next night (Saturday, Nov. 22) where they take on the Tri-City Americans at 7 p.m.
For those who can’t make it out to the games, all Giants play is streamed free at Victory+.