Once again, it came down to the goaltending.
This time, it was Burke Hood, who made a career-high 55 saves in a 4-3 win over the league-leading Everett Silvertips on Saturday night at Langley Events Centre.
Hood made 23 saves in the third period alone, helping the Giants hold on for the regulation win. He is now 3-0-0 lifetime against the Silvertips, with a .942 save percentage (129 saves on 137 shots).
Vancouver got goals from four different skaters: Leonardo Domenichelli, Ty Halaburda, Cameron Schmidt and Torretto Marrelli.
Jesse Heslop, Jaxsin Vaughan and Julius Miettinen provided the goals for the Silvertips.
Head Coach Parker Burgess praised the whole team, saying “the kids just left it all out there. Two really really good periods…That’s the best team in the WHL, at least so far that we’ve seen. Really liked our game for 40 minutes and then we talked between periods as a staff and we said ‘Burke is going to have to show up this period because they’re going to bring the onslaught.’ We bent a little bit, but we didn’t break and got two big points. So proud of the kids.”
Their win came one day after Kelton Pyne made a career-high 46 saves for the Giants in their 3-2 shootout win over the Penticton Vees.
Saturday, Giants got out to a 2-0 lead on their first two shots of the game.
First, Domenichelli rifled a shot in the top corner after an Everett turnover.
Thirty-two seconds later, Halaburda beat Legall on a shot on a pass from Ryan Lin. It was the captain’s 15th goal of the season.
Everett got one back off the stick of Heslop, but Vancouver responded 62 seconds later to restore their two-goal advantage.
Schmidt scored his team-leading 17th of the year to make it 3-1 for the Giants after one period of play.
Just 2:09 into the second period, Vancouver stretched their lead to 4-1 after Marrelli scored on a penalty shot while shorthanded.
Everett made the game 4-2 with a goal from Vaughan less than two minutes later.
The third period became the Burke Hood show. The Silvertips outshot Vancouver 24-5 in the third period, but they only beat Hood once, when Carter Bear connected with Miettinen on a cross-ice pass.
Giants Hood and Lin were named first and third stars of the game respectively.
Everett outshot Vancouver 58-20.
Next, Giants play a 3-in-3 next weekend.
Friday, December 5, they host Portland at Langley Events Centre at 7 p.m. before they head south, to play Everett Saturday and Portland on Sunday.