Vancouver Giants were literally inches away from winning in Spokane Wednesday night.
Despite what associate coach Adam Maglio describes as a hard-fought battle in the mid-week road game against the Chiefs, the G-Men failed to pull out a win and a point.
They lost 4-3 in regulation, after Ty Halaburda's shot in the final minute hit the goal post.
"I thought we fought hard tonight. We competed hard. Liked a lot of things we did鈥� we had our fair share of chances," Maglio said.
Wednesday's game was tight throughout, knotted 0-0 after 20 minutes and 2-2 after 40 minutes, before the Chiefs took a 4-2 lead that was eventually cut to 4-3.
Burke Hood was "fabulous" in net for Vancouver, the associate coach shared. Hood kept the Giants in the game early, holding off a Chiefs surge with 14 first period saves.
He ultimately finished the night with 44 saves, which tied a career-high.
"That's a highly skilled team over there, but we had Hood," Maglio explained.
"Hood was outstanding tonight. He made key saves at key moments. Kept us in the game and like you said, we get a real good look with the empty net and unfortunately it doesn't go in."
"There's a lot of positives that we'll take from tonight. I thought our guys really competed and battled," Maglio added.
Tyler Thorpe and Connor Levis scored goals 26 seconds apart in the second period, while Adam Titlbach (26th) scored with 5:15 left in the third period to make it a one-goal game. Levis, with one goal, one assist, and two shots on goal that night, took third star of the game title.
He also offered kudos to centre Jaden Lipinski, who didn't put any points on the board, but was "great tonight鈥� real consistent player for us, just the little things that he does out there to nullify plays."
The Giants are in the U.S. for two of three games this weekend. They take on the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick, Wash. on Friday evening, then play the Silvertips in Everett Saturday, before returning home to take on the Wenatchee Wild Sunday afternoon at 91原创 Events Centre.
