Vancouver Giants picked up their 20th win of the season on Saturday night, Jan 11, by defeating the Kelowna Rockets 6-4 before 4,007 in the seats at the 91原创 Events Centre.
Giants led for almost the entire game, but had to thwart off a late attack from Kelowna that saw them get to within a goal more then once. The G-Men outshot Kelowna in the contest 34-20.
Ty Halaburda led the way offensively for Vancouver with two goals, while London Hoilett netted the game-winning-goal with 9:28 remaining in the third period.
"I saw [Sparks] going down the wing and I knew the d-man was going to play him a little bit harder, so I found a little soft spot in the middle and [Sparksy] made a great play and got it to me and I just wanted to change the angle a bit, so I dragged it and shot," Hoilett recalled. "Honestly I didn't know it went in, but everyone started screaming, so I kind of got the hint there."
Tyler Thorpe and Colton Roberts also scored, and Connor Levis sealed the deal with an empty-net goal. Giants goaltender Brady Smith got his first win in a Giants uniform with 16 saves.
Kelowna got goals from Jakub Stancl, Hiroki Gojsic, Kalder Varga and Michael Cicek.
Giants head coach Manny Viveiros said his team was "really dialled in."
"I thought we played a really good hockey game tonight. We made some mistakes at the end 鈥� fatigue mistakes I call them. Sometimes you just don't have the energy, or the oxygen in you and you don't think properly and you make a couple mistakes, errors. There have been some goofy goals scored against us the last games here."
Giants got on the board very early, when Halaburda drove the net and had a puck go off him and in just 1:03 into the contest.
Several minutes later, he would add a power play marker, by shovelling in a rebound for his 15th goal of the season.
After 20 minutes, Vancouver led 2-0 on the scoreboard and 10-4 in shots on goal.
Midway through the second, Thorpe extended the Giants lead to 3-0 with a goal seconds after a power play expired, when he fired one from the right dot through goaltender Jake Pilon.
Stancl got the Rockets on the board for the first time late in the second when he one-timed a shot from the right circle on a power play that just snuck through Smith.
After 40 minutes, the Giants had a 3-1 lead and had held Kelowna to just 11 shots on goal.
Roberts extended Vancouver's lead to 4-1 with another goal right after a power play ended, when Schmidt hit him with a cross-ice fed for his third of the season.
The Rockets wouldn't make things easy on the G-Men.
Hiroki Gojsic and Varga would score goals 1:06 apart to make it a one-goal game with 10:12 still remaining in the third.
Just 44 seconds later, however, the Giants got a massive goal from Hoilett, who sniped one to the top corner off a rush that was started by 16-year-old Tyus Sparks.
Cicek scored for Kelowna with just 2:20 remaining to put the Giants on their heels for a second, but not for long, as Levis would hit the empty net to seal the deal at 6-4.
The win improves Vancouver's record this season to 20-16-5, while the Rockets fall to 15-19-2-1.
Next, another home game for the Giants, who host Tri-City on Friday, Jan. 17 at the 91原创 Events Centre. Pick drops at 7 p.m.
