(Langley, BC) Bowen Byram had a historic night in the Giants’ 7-4 victory over the division rival Kamloops Blazers. The 2019 NHL Draft top prospect had a five point night (2G, 3A) which set a new franchise record for points in one game by a defenceman, previously held by Jonathan Blum, Neil Manning, Cody Franson, Paul Albers and Kevin Connauton with four points.
The Vancouver Giants (25-12-2-0) hosted the Kamloops Blazers (15-22-2-1) Saturday night for the teams’ third meeting of the season in Vancouver, with the Giants winning both.
The first period saw an explosion of five goals, beginning at the 2:32 mark when Bowen Byram pounced on an Alex Kannok-Leipert rebound to put the Giants up by one for his first of two in the period. Blazers captain Jermaine Loewen would even the score just a minute later for his 13th of the season. At the 9:05 mark of the first period, Byram added to his career night with his 12th goal of the season, giving him the league lead in goals among defenceman.
?: @BowenByram pic.twitter.com/Z6B9EvzxGL
— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) January 13, 2019
Goals by Milos Roman (18th) and the Blazers’ Travis Walton (first) rounded out the scoring for the first period, with the Giants up 3-2.
The second period saw four goals, all by Vancouver, starting just 46 seconds in when 16-year-old Justin Sourdif buried a loose puck in front for his tenth of the year to give the G-Men a 4-2 lead. Just 89 seconds later, Tristen Nielsen took a pass in the slot from Davis Koch and snapped it over Dylan Ferguson’s blocker shoulder, which ended the Vegas Golden Knights prospect’s night after five goals on just 15 shots. Brayden Watts (10th) and Davis Koch (12th) rounded out the scoring for Vancouver after 40 minutes.
The scoring slowed down in the final frame with just two goals as the Blazers showed some push back as the Giants looked to have taken their feet off the gas going into the period with a five goal lead. Kobe Mohr and Jermaine Loewen were the goal scorers for the Blazers to hand them their fourth straight loss and the Giants their second straight win heading into their matchup against Victoria on Sunday.
Today’s matchup
The Giants take on the Victoria Royals (22-16-1-0) Sunday afternoon for the seventh time this season with the Royals leading the season series 3-2-1-0. The Royals have been gaining some traction in the BC Division race, going 7-3-0-0 in their last ten games and are now seven points behind the Giants for first in the division.
Players to Watch
Kody McDonald: The newly acquired 20-year-old forward has three goals in five games since joining the Royals. McDonald may be familiar to some Giants fans from his parts of five seasons with the Prince George Cougars, appearing in 232 games with the team.
Bowen Byram: The 17-year-old is riding a five game point streak where he has 10 points and is tied for the team lead in points alongside Davis Koch with 38 points.
