As the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would put it: Cowabunga dudes!
Vancouver Giants were dressed in special jerseys that paid tribute to the cartoon heroes as they hosted the Tri-City Americans from Kennewick, WA, Sunday afternoon, Jan. 5, dominating their rivals in a 4-1 victory before 4,007 fans at 91原创 events Centre that ended a four-game losing streak.
Ty Halaburda opened the scoring for the Giants with 1:22 left in the first period, with Skyler Bruce and Mazden Leslie assisting.
In the second, the Americans tied the game at 8:46 with a goal from Reese Belton. It would be their only goal of the game.
Ethan Semeniuk brought Vancouver back ahead with a shorthanded goal before the period was over, off an assist by Jaden Lipinski and Carson Haynes, for the game winner.
Tyler Thorpe widened the gap when he netted a rebound goal 14:43 into the third to make it 3-1, with Mazden Leslie and Jaden Lipinski assisting on the insurance goal.
With 1:16 to go in the game, Ty Thorpe scored an empty net goal.
馃摴"I thought it was a solid effort from our goaltender to our defence to our forwards."
鈥� Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants)
Head Coach Michael Dyck post game after a 4-1 win over Tri City.
Head Coach Michael Dyck was enjoying the win, but the run of losses that preceded it was still on his mind.
鈥淚 just don鈥檛 think we can forget where we were,鈥� Dyck said after the game.
鈥淚 mean we went through some hard times here in the last week.鈥�
Dyck described it as 鈥渁 solid team effort from our goaltender to our defence to our forwards. We did a good job鈥�
Vancouver outshot Tri-City 29 to 25 .
It was another strong performance by a Giants netminder, this time from Jesper Vikman, who stopped 24 of 25 shots for Vancouver.
Vikman and Lipinski were name first and second stars of the game, respectively.
READ ALSO: VIDEO: A great game by netminder not enough for Vancouver Giants win
READ ALSO: Vancouver Giants to host Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles night for BC Children鈥檚 Hospital
After the game, the ninja turtles jerseys were auctioned off, with proceeds going to the BC Children鈥檚 Hospital through the Children鈥檚 Miracle Network.
Fans were invited to take part in a postgame skate, presented by Save On Foods.
Up next, a road trip takes the G-Men to Victoria鈥檚 Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena on Friday, Feb. 10. Puck drops at 7:05 p.m.
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