The power play is buying in, but it still isn’t enough.
After playing with the lead for a good portion of the hockey game, Vancouver only managed to leave the LEC with one point as the Kelowna Rockets walked away with a 3-2 overtime victory.
The Giants are trying to catch up with the Rockets for third in the division, now sitting six points back.
“I thought we had a really good second period, first period was decent, thought we were fighting the puck a little bit. We should have won the hockey game but we beat ourselves.” said Michael Dyck.
The Memorial Cup hosts came to play from the get-go, pacing the play offensively.
It only took 4:37 for the Rockets’ play to get rewarded as Florida Panthers prospect Matthew Wedman notched his twelfth of the season off an impressive individual effort from the mid-season acquisition.
Drew the penalty, but it wasn't needed to get the job done.
? @m_weds #FlaPanthers
? @seancomrie77 pic.twitter.com/qUJ9cHilXs— Kelowna Rockets (@Kelowna_Rockets) January 26, 2020
Wedman’s marker stood as the lone goal to close out the opening frame.
*The Giants’ power play has entered the chat….*
Having gone 4-for-10 in the previous three games going into Saturday night, the Giants’ improving power-play unit stepped up again.
Milos Roman, who was looking for his first goal since December 28th, got the monkey off his back, finishing off a Tristen Nielsen centering feed to give him 14 goals on the year.
#Flames prospect Milos Roman breaks his scoring slump with a power-play goal to tie the game for the @WHLGiants #WHL pic.twitter.com/DoJ1DwDZtI
— Stephen Hawco (@stephenhawco7) January 26, 2020
The goal also marked Roman’s first goal on the man advantage since September 29th.
A couple short minutes later, the power play went back to work…..
Tyler Preziuso gets a good bounce for his 17th of the year, also on the power play, to give the @WHLGiants a quick 2-1 lead. Giants PP is 2/4 tonight. #WHL pic.twitter.com/7Ufsdpnli7
— Stephen Hawco (@stephenhawco7) January 26, 2020
For the second time in recent memory, Tyler Preziuso got a good bounce from his own centering pass to give him his 17th goal of the season.
Pressure around the net on the man advantage is something coach Michael Dyck preaches to his team.
“When you talk about the power play, we just want to generate net pressure and that’s what happens, you get bounces that way.” he said.
“It (the power play) got us going in the second period. That’s what we need to do, create the momentum and offence. The power play gave us a chance to win, Trent Miner gave us a chance to win.”
The Giants looked to be owning the hockey game as the second period continued and into the third as they were protecting a one-goal lead.
Until they weren’t.
Jonas Peterek, who the Rockets acquired at the deadline, evened things back up about half way through the third period to give Kelowna new life.
From there, the Giants took two late penalties.
One being a five minute major from Tristen Nielsen with just two minutes left in regulation.
.@WHLGiants leading scorer Tristen Nielsen was given a five minute major for interference and a game misconduct for this hit on Kelowna's Mark Liwiski. #WHL pic.twitter.com/lP5Jxvr0Qp
— Stephen Hawco (@stephenhawco7) January 26, 2020
Three of the five minutes carried over into overtime and that’s about all Kelowna needed to put this one away as the Rockets snapped the puck around for the entirety of the extra frame until Vegas Golden Knights prospect Kaedan Korczak won it.
Coach Michael Dyck was visibly not happy with his player about the late five minute penalty that were given to try to kill off.
“Our penalty kill was good but you take a five minute penalty with two minutes left, those are almost impossible to kill off.” he said. He continued by calling it a “selfish play” from the team’s leading scorer.
Michael Dyck seemed he wouldn’t be surprised to see additional supplementary discipline for the interference major, which would result in Nielsen missing the rematch between the two teams on Sunday.
But something else that has gone under the radar is the injury of 16-year-old Zack Ostapchuk who left the game in the second period and did not return.
Going into Sunday shorthanded, the Giants will have an uphill battle to steal two points from the division rival.
“They have to dig in and fight for each other. We lose Zack Ostapchuk and i doubt we’ll have Tristen Nielsen tomorrow, we’re going to be shorthanded so it’ll have to be a real gritty effort as a team.” Dyck said about what they have to do going into Sunday.
Stay tuned for more from DUBNetwork……
