Vancouver Giants fought well Sunday afternoon, Jan. 26 at the 91原创 Events Centre against the Swift Current Broncos, but came away with a single point in a 3-2 overtime defeat.
Ty Halaburda (18th) and Tyler Thorpe (19th) each scored for Vancouver, while Burke Hood stood tall with 32 saves, including a jaw-dropper in the second period when the game was 1-1 by going to post-to-post to deny what looked to be a sure goal from Trae Wilke.
Brady Birnie scored the overtime winner for the Broncos, while Josh McGregor and Wilke each scored in regulation time.
Giants head coach Manny Viveiros called Swift Current "a real good hockey team."
"I thought we did a really good job," Viveiros said. The kids were dialled in. They were working; they competed. We did everything we possibly could to mitigate some of the speed that they have and take away some of their high end skill. I thought we did a really good job...only time we got in a little bit of trouble was we knew that their defencemen get up in the rush quite a bit 鈥� they're quite mobile. It's going to happen sometimes 鈥� you're going to get caught deep in the zone and they beat us up ice, but for the most part I thought there wasn't a whole lot of room out there for either team."
Giants opened the scoring less than five minutes into the game, when Cameron Schmidt's neutral zone pass created a 2-on-1 for the Giants, with Levis centering the puck to Halaburda, who slid it past Joey Rocha.
The Broncos tied the contest 1-1 at the 12:12 mark of the first period when McGregor's shot found its way past Hood.
After exchanging goals in the opening period, the two opponents would do the same in the second period.
Before that, however, Hood would make a miraculous save for the Giants to keep the score knotted at 1-1.
Not long after, Broncos forward Wilkie was the beneficiary of a dump-in that changed direction and went to Carlin Dezainde, who quickly found Wilkie in front to make it 2-1.
But the Giants got a late shorthanded marker from Thorpe to send the two clubs tied once again heading into the intermission.
Neither team found the back of the net in the third period, sending the game to extra time.
Both teams had chances to end it, but eventually it would be Birnie's wrist shot from the top of the right circle that found the top corner to give Swift Current the 3-2 overtime win.
With an assist on Sunday, captain Mazden Leslie extended his point streak to 10 games (5G-12A). He also has 22 points in his last 14 games (5G-17A). Tyler Thorpe now has four goals in his last six games
With an assist on Sunday, Cameron Schmidt now has 14 points in his last 10 games (6G-8A)
With 32 saves on Sunday, Burke Hood has now made 30 or more saves in five of his last seven contests.The loss drops Vancouver's record this season to 23-17-6, while the Broncos improve to 24-18-1-1.
The G-Men are 10-4-2 in their last 16 games. They are three points back of Prince George for 5th place in the Western Conference and six points back of the division-leading Victoria Royals.
Next up, a Friday, Jan. 31 trip to play Seattle, followed by back-to-back games at LEC Saturday against Kamloops at 7 p.m. and Sunday against Spokane at 4 p.m.
