After suffering back-to-back defeats on home ice for the first time all season, the Blazers put a stake in the ground and knocked off the Vancouver Giants 2-1 in overtime on Friday evening.
When it was all said and done, the shot clock favoured the home team by a count of 47-20. Was it the dominant performance one would expect after a margin of 27 shots? Arguably, but one could contend that the Blazers simply needed to “find a way” after consecutive losses.
Post-game, Blazers’ head coach Shaun Clouston expects games like these to become the norm, especially within the B.C. Division. “There are teams on this side that are strong with their structure and I foresee a lot of this. Teams are going to play us hard, they’re gonna defend really hard and we’re gonna have to be patient, and I thought we were patient tonight.”
Patience is a virtue. Aside from a howitzer off the stick of Logan Stankoven in the second period, Giants’ goaltender David Tendeck was basically unbeatable.
After a scoreless first period, Brodi Stuart, Josh Pillar, and Ryley Appelt hemmed the Giants in their own end, causing the turnover that led to Stankoven’s 13th goal of the season.
“It was Stewie’s line that went out there and created some o-zone time in the second period and then changed offensively, so we had fresh legs out there against a really tired group and we took advantage of that.”
Fresh legs were a common and welcomed theme for the Blazers who saw Kyrell Sopotyk, Martin Lang and Inaki Baragano return to the lineup. On the other side, the Giants were without the services of defenceman Bowen Byram who is with Team Canada in the Czech Republic, while Justin Sourdif was a last-minute scratch.
With Baragano completing his one-game suspension and Lang returning from the Czech Republic, there was still a question mark regarding Sopotyk’s availability. Originally, the 18-year old was given January 10th against the Kelowna Rockets as his target date but a successful rehab expedited his return.
“It felt really good. I mean, honestly, sitting out 8 weeks, you build up a lot of excitement sitting in the stands watching the games. You wanna be out there so it felt good to be back. A little bit of nerves obviously, but it was very exciting.”
Tristen Nielsen made things a little too exciting for the Blazers faithful in the third period. With 26 seconds remaining on the clock and Tendeck on the bench for an extra attacker, the Giants’ leading scorer beat Blazers’ goaltender Dylan Garand with his 17th of the season.
Despite outshooting Vancouver 20-4 in the final frame and solid opportunities from Stuart’s line, the Blazers and Giants required overtime to declare a winner. In a fitting end to an otherwise great goaltender performance, Zane Franklin’s shot in 3-on-3 bounced off a Giants’ defender before sneaking past Tendeck.
The Blazers’ 144 goals are the most in the WHL’s Western Conference, but Stankoven was quick to reiterate the words of his coach, suggesting that opponents will be clamping down as teams jockey for playoff positioning down the stretch.
“Not all the games are gonna be high scoring, sometimes you’ll have to grind it out and do the little things right and it worked out well for us tonight.”
The Blazers host the Victoria Royals on Saturday, January 4th at 7 PM.
