No goals were scored by either side in the opening 20 minutes of play, but not for a lack of trying, as both goaltenders were tested fairly often in a matchup Wednesday night between the Vancouver Giants and Red Deer Rebels.
In fact, Giants netminder Brett Mirwald shut the door on all nine shots he faced, while Rebels鈥� Rhett Stoesser made seven stops during those initial minutes. Mirwald would go on to finish the game with a total of 32 saves out of 35 shots on goal 鈥� chaulking up his sixth win of the season.
And the whole team walked away with their second consecutive victory, scoring goals from four different players in a 4-3 regulation win over the Rebels.
Of note during Wednesday鈥檚 home game at the 91原创 Events Centre (LEC), the Giants recorded a string of three goals in a span of 4:41 in the second period to give the team a 3-1 lead, but it was Jaden Lipinski鈥檚 power play goal that stood up as the game-winner at the 7:25 mark of the third period. That also earned him his seventh point in the past five games (3G-4A).
Reflecting back on the win after the game, Lipinski said the victory 鈥淚t feels great. I mean we struggled in the third period at times. We went in with the lead鈥� and it was nice to hang on,鈥� said the right-handed centre from Arizona.
In addition to Lipinski, scoring for the Giants was Tyler Thorpe, Ty Halaburda, and Colton Langkow.
The victory improves Vancouver鈥檚 record to 7-8-1 so far this season, confirmed head coach Manny Viveiros.
鈥淚 liked the way our guys are responding. We鈥檙e not getting in those deep lulls for a couple shifts when we give up a goal now and that鈥檚 really important,鈥� he shared after the game.
鈥淲e鈥檝e just got to get back to our game again and get going and get a little bit of a push back and play the game the right way and we got rewarded for it tonight.鈥�
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The goose egg wasn鈥檛 broken until the 13:47 mark of the second period, when Rebels captain Kai Uchacz found Formanek in the slot to make it 1-0 for the visitors.
Just five seconds after opening the scoring, the Rebels found themselves down a man after a boarding penalty and Vancouver made them pay, after Halaburda found Thorpe in the right circle off the rush, who sniped home his ninth tally of the season to even the score.
Vancouver followed up Thorpe鈥檚 goal with back-to-back strikes in 30 seconds.
First, Halaburda tucked home a wrap around for his fifth of the season.
Then, Gronick was able to centre the puck to Langkow, who one-timed it past Stoesser to give Vancouver a 3-1 score.
Early in the third period, Drancak made it a one-goal game again when he whacked home a bouncing puck for his fourth goal of the season.
Several minutes later, the Giants made the Rebels pay for another offensive zone penalty when Lipinski won the face-off to himself and chipped the puck top corner over the glove to restore the Giants two-goal advantage.
Although Red Deer would get one back off the stick of Brigley, the Giants were able to hold on for a 4-3 regulation win.
鈥淲ith an aggressive team like Red Deer, their 鈥楧鈥� are very aggressive along the walls and that was part of our pre-scout,鈥� said Viveiros.
鈥漌e said if we can get pucks behind their defencemen when they鈥檙e pinching down, and we have guys in the right positions, we鈥檙e gonna get into odd-man situations. In the first period we weren鈥檛 doing that and in the second period we started doing that and we ended up getting quite a few odd-man situations.鈥�
Next up, it鈥檚 another home game, with the Giants host the Portland Winterhawks at 7 p.m on Friday, Nov. 10, at the LEC. Fans can go for tickets.
On Saturday, the G-Men will head State side to Everett, to battle the Silvertips for the first time this season.
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