Vancouver Giants were eliminated from the 2025 Western Hockey League playoffs on Saturday night following a 9-4 loss to the Spokane Chiefs in game five of their opening round playoff series.

Cameron Schmidt scored twice for Vancouver, while 20-year-olds Jaden Lipinski and Maxim Muranov also found the back of the net. The draft-eligible Schmidt had nine points in the series, on four goals and five assists.

Spokane's top line of Berkly Catton, Andrew Cristall and Shea Van Olm combined for 18 points in the series clinching game, including seven of Spokane's goals. Van Olm had a hat-trick; Catton and Cristall had two goals each. Rasmus Ekstrom and Assanali Sarkenov also scored for the home side.

The Chiefs took the best-of-seven series 4-1.

Giants Associate Coach Adam Maglio called it a "disappointing end to the year."

"We left it all out there, especially in the third, where we could have kind of folded." Maglio commented.

"I thought we just kept pushing. So credit to the group, that's the character we have in there. There was no quit. They just kept playing until the end...There were a lot of really good moments in that game. Again it was one of those series that was just full of different momentum leads throughout the game and it wasn't any different tonight. We score a couple early and they get a couple right back."

For the fourth time in the series, the Giants opened the scoring.

Entering off the rush, Ty Halaburda dropped the puck to Lipinski, who zipped a cross-ice pass to Schmidt at the left circle, who fired it home just 61 seconds into the game.

Cristall responded on a power play a few minutes later.

Less than three minutes after Spokane's equalizer, Schmidt put the Giants back in front after he deposited a loose puck past Cowan after Marek Howell's point shot was blocked in front.

Just past the midway part of the first, Spokane scored twice in 27 seconds, first Catton and then Van Olm.

Van Olm would score his second of the game with 5:30 left in the first period, giving Spokane a 4-2 lead after a hectic opening 20 minutes.

The Chiefs added to their lead just 91 seconds into the second, when Van Olm backhanded home a loose puck to complete the hat-trick.

Ekstrom made it 6-2 Spokane with a power play marker from the left circle just a few minutes later.

Sarkenov increased his club's lead to 7-2 just 1:12 after Ekstrom's goal.

In the opening minute of the third period, Cristall notched his second of the night to make the score 8-2.

Muranov and Lipinski scored a few minutes apart to get Vancouver to within four at 8-4, but that was as close as the Giants would come, with Catton hitting the empty net to make the final score 9-4.