Three first-period power play goals by Vancouver Giants on Tuesday night, Oct.8, gave the visiting team a win over the Red Deer Rebels, while the hosts suffered their first regulation loss of the season, a 5-2 defeat.

Mazden Leslie, Ty Halaburda and Cameron Schmidt each scored in the opening frame, while Aaron Obobaifo and Jakob Oreskovic scored in the second period for the G-Men.

Matthew Hutchison made 32 saves on the evening, including stopping all 13 shots he faced in the third period.

Cohen Poulin and Hunter Mayo had the goals for the Rebels.

Giants Associate Coach Adam Maglio praised the special teams.

"I thought we competed hard tonight and you have to against a team like Red Deer," Maglio commented.

"That's a team that directs a lot of pucks to the net. There's a lot of scrums; we had numbers around it. We had numbers at the net. I thought the guys did a good job. I thought Hutch was good tonight too, so it was great to see Hutch have a real good solid game in there." 

The win improves Vancouver's record to 4-2-0 this season.

Giants scored the first goal of the game for the first time this season, and it came on their first power play of the contest just under eight minutes in.

Leslie took a pass from Roberts and let a low shot go from the right circle that beat Wutzke through the five hole to make it 1-0.

After Matthew Gard was called for cross-checking, the Giants extended their lead to 2-0 thanks to a great cross-seam pass from Leslie to Halaburda in the slot, who snapped it home for his third goal of the season.

Then, with only nine seconds left in the period, Schmidt was able to find a loose puck just outside the crease and shoot it off a defender and in, giving the Giants a commanding 3-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Early in the second, Red Deer got on the board after a turnover behind the Giants net.

But less than five minutes later, Obobaifo restored Vancouver's three-goal lead.

Only 1:55 after Obobaifo made it 4-1, a fellow first round pick from 2022 increased the Giants lead yet again.

Jakob Oreskovic tipped in Leslie's point shot at the 8:10 mark of the middle frame to make it 5-1 for Vancouver.

The Rebels got one goal back just a few minutes later, but that would be the last goal scored in the hockey game.

Next up, a Friday, Oct. 11 visit to the Lethbridge Hurricanes.