Vancouver won the first of three scheduled games against the Victoria Royals Tuesday night, Dec. 27, in front of 3,507 fans at 91Ô­´´ Events Centre (LEC), scoring three goals in a row to take an insurmountable lead.

A late-in-the game surge by Victoria came up short, making it the the fourth win in a row against the Royals this season for the Giants, who currently rank fifth in the WHL western conference. Royals are ninth.

Giants opened the scoring at 7:58 of the first period, when, seconds after completing a penalty kill, Ty Halaburda sniped home the first goal of the game on a partial break. Jaden Lipinski had the assist.

In the second period, Ty Thorpe doubled the Vancouver lead at 8:43, assisted by Matthew Edwards.

Then, Jaden Lipinski redirected home a Carson Haynes shot on a power play 4:18 later. Ty Thorpe also assisted.

Victoria finally got on the board in the third, when Riley Gannon intercepted a breakout pass midway through the third and got the Royals on the board.

Alex Thacker tapped home a back-door pass from Jake Poole with 0:57 left in the game but it wasn’t enough, and the Giants would hold on for the victory.

Final Score: Vancouver 3 – Victoria 2.

Once again, netminder Jesper Vikman was a big part of the Giants game, blocking all but two as the Royals outshot the Giants 36-19.

Vikman was named first star of the game, with Lipinski and Thorpe second and third stars.

Both teams were to meet again tonight (Wednesday, Dec. 28) at the LEC at 7 p.m. and again on Friday, Dec. 30, when the Giants travel to Victoria for their third game in a row against the Royals at Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena

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