Giants netminder Kelton Pyne made 27 saves and Colton Gerrior scored the game-winning goal late in the third period as Vancouver downed Portland Winterhawks 2-1 before 3,506 at Langley Events Centre Saturday.
Lance McCloskey scored his second goal of the season to open the scoring for the Giants, while Gerrior’s goal was his seventh of the season. Pyne was named the first star of the game, resulting in his third first-star selection in his last four games.
Alex Weiermair was the lone goal scorer for the Winterhawks.
Giants Head Coach Parker Burgess said the team had a good start.
“Start of the second I thought Portland had a good push, but we hold them to the low 20s [in shots on goal] and we didn’t give up a lot of odd-man rushes. Our checking, our defending and overall the resiliency of the group [was strong].”
It came after a 6-1 road loss to Spokane the previous night.
“To have a tough one last night and with travel you get in at 5:30 in the morning and then you’ve got to turn around and play again – I thought we just did a great job. Give up a goal in the third to lose the lead, but then to stick with it and find a way to get the next one and then really play some heavy, hard hockey down the stretch in the third period. Just really proud of the group.”
Gerrior said the team “just bounced back from last night’s game. [We] stuck together and executed our game plan.”
McCloskey notched his second goal of the campaign at the 14:45 mark of the first period, executing a give-and-go with Gerrior to open the scoring.
After a scoreless second period, Vancouver entered the final frame with a 1-0 lead thanks to 17 saves from Pyne.
Portland tied the game at the 6:15 mark of the third period when Weiermair rifled a one-timer home from the left circle on the power play.
With less than seven minutes left in the third period, the Giants got the game-winning-goal from Gerrior, after he ripped a bad angle shot from the right side boards following an offensive zone face-off win from Brett Olson.
Vancouver improves to 21-32-1-2 (45 points) following the win. Portland drops to 25-25-5-1 (56 points), currently sitting in seventh place in the Western Conference.
Giants’ next game is at home against Seattle on Friday, before taking on Kamloops on the road.