A strong buy-in from throughout the lineup and 37 saves from goaltender Brett Mirwald led the Vancouver Giants to a 3-1 win over the Portland Winterhawks on Friday night at the 91原创 Events Centre, making it six straight victories for the G-Men.
Vancouver鈥檚 regulation win over the top team in the western conference also stretches their point streak to 10 games, during which they are 9-0-1, the team鈥檚 effort Friday once again impressing head coach Manny Viveiros.
鈥淭hese kids come to work every single day and they put the time in. I always say if you put the time in and work the proper way, you can鈥檛 help but improve. Credit to the kids. We were missing two real key players to our lineup tonight and other guys stepped up and played really well for us. I like where we鈥檙e going. I really do. I could get used to this,鈥� he said after Friday鈥檚 game.
This victory shifted the Giants overall record to 26-24-3-0 in the season, and 13-3-1 since New Year鈥檚 Day.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we鈥檝e reached our ceiling as of yet. There鈥檚 a lot of little fine details in our game that we can improve on, especially at this age,鈥� Viveiros said.
鈥淭hese kids are always learning and trying to get better every single day. As a group, as a team, that鈥檚 something that each game, each week we can continue to improve, improve and if we鈥檙e lucky enough to get into the playoffs, that鈥檚 where you want to be at your best form and that鈥檚 something that we鈥檙e striving for.鈥�
Vancouver still emerged victorious even though they had notably fewer shots on goal. While the Giants only fired 25 shots at the Portland net (12/7/6), Portland shot 38 鈥� 37 of which goalie Brett Mirwald is once again credited with stopping, even impressing his fellow players, like forward Connor Levis.
鈥淔irst and foremost, [Mirwald] played an amazing game. He made some incredible stops, which really helps with the confidence in our team here. But we defended really well. That鈥檚 important,鈥� Levis shared after the game.
鈥淧ortland鈥檚 a pretty offensive team and when you鈥檙e doing that really well, you鈥檙e going to have some offensive chances as well鈥hen you鈥檙e focusing on the defence, you鈥檙e shutting off their transition. We were going to have some pretty good opportunities to create some odd-man rushes. We were able to do that off [Hammett鈥檚] goal there and make it a 2-1 game there. That was super important for us to pull off the win,鈥� he said.
Next up for the Giants is tonight鈥檚 game, underway in Portland.
Then on Family Day on Monday, the Giants host the Spokane Chiefs for Country Day at 2 p.m. at the 91原创 Events Centre.
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GAME SUMMARY
Vancouver opened the scoring on a power play midway through the first period, after Adam Titlbach fired a shot from the left circle after entering off the rush, which created a rebound off Portland鈥檚 goaltender Jan Spunar.
Tyson Zimmer was able to knock the puck out of mid-air and into the net after the rebound landed on the edge of the crease, making it 1-0 for the Giants at the 13:11 mark.
That was the only goal of the first period.
The Giants made it 2-0 7:38 into the second after Logen Hammett started a rush from his own end, eventually dishing the puck to his right to Connor Levis, who returned it to Hammett for an easy tap-in.
After 40 minutes, the Giants led 2-0, while the shots on goal favoured Portland 27-19.
The Winterhawks got one back early in the third, after Josh Mori鈥檚 point shot found its way through some traffic just 2:16 in to make it 2-1.
Although Portland gained a bit of momentum, the Giants were able to get some back themselves and eventually went ahead by two goals for the second time in the game, thanks to another goal off the rush.
It was led by Ty Halaburda, who played pitch and catch with Mazden Leslie a couple times before Leslie 鈥� who was the trailer on a 3-on-1 鈥� one-timed it low past Spunar.
Portland pushed, but then took a penalty when their own net was empty with just under two minutes left, pretty much ensuring there wouldn鈥檛 be a comeback.
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