The Vancouver Giants defeated the BC Division-leading Kamloops Blazers in exciting fashion with a 5-4 overtime win Friday night.
Going into the game, the Giants were yet to beat the Blazers this season in the teams’ previous four match ups, something that coach Michael Dyck said was a big confidence boost for his group.
“I think it does a lot (for the confidence).” said Dyck
“We were well prepared going into this game, we had a good week of practice. We liked our preparation going into today, very business-like.” he continued.
The opening period saw Kamloops strike twice in the last five minutes, once on the power play and one shorthanded.
Blazers goaltender Dylan Garand had an unofficial assist with an impressive save that led to his team’s first goal.
Marvellous save by #2020NHLDraft prospect Dylan Garand on a 2-on-1 break. The @blazerhockey went down to score shorthanded not long after. 1-0 KAM #WHL pic.twitter.com/5FLt3m4yJ4
— Stephen Hawco (@stephenhawco7) February 1, 2020
Just as the four-on-four was expiring, Garand came up big by robbing Cole Shepard of his tenth goal of the season.
About fifteen seconds later, Montana Onyebuchi sent Josh Pillar on a shorthanded breakaway and made no mistake for his 13th goal of the year.
Not quite the result the Giants were deserving of early on.
Then the league’s third-best power play came out to play….
On the Blazers’ second opportunity of the night, their top line of Centazzo-Franklin-Zary put their mark on the game as they do almost nightly.
It was a good night for 2020 Draft eligible players (Sourdif, Zary, Garand) as Zary scored his 29th of the season, his first of two on the night, off a feed from Zane Franklin to double his team’s lead in the final minutes of the period.
Now for one of the better periods seen at the LEC this season…
56 seconds is all it took for Vancouver to find the back of the net thanks to an almost full power play to start the period.
Michal Kvasnica scored his third goal in his last two games and has really seemed to start finding his confidence after not scoring since December 8th.
His contributions are the secondary scoring that was missing from this Giants team during the first half of the season.
It seemed Vancouver was scoring their goals in four minute increments, as Justin Sourdif, Milos Roman, and Bowen Byram all scored more or less four minutes apart from one another.
Sourdif’s goal was in highlight fashion as you can see:
“I’m really happy with the way we responded in the second period. I thought we played well in the first, but they capitalized on a few of their opportunities but I really liked our response.” Dyck said regarding his team’s four unanswered goals.
It was also a big night for Bowen Byram, who scored his first goal since November 20th, albeit being away from the team for most of December and early January. You could see it was a big one for the Avalanche prospect.
“I haven’t had that personal success that I would have liked in the first half so it feels good to score a goal.” said Byram.
He continued with, “It was also a big moment in the game, going up two goals on a really good team, so lots of excitement.”
After going into the dressing room down two goals in the first, just 20 minutes later, they were walking in with a two-goal lead of their own.
Hockey.
The third period was a bit of a hiccup for the Giants, allowing Kamloops back into the game, with penalties being a factor
Vancouver had eight power plays on the night, Kamloops, six.
After Connor Zary brought the game within one early in the period, it was Orrin Centazzo who tied the game up with about eight minutes remaining in regulation.
The Blazers showed the resilience it takes to be a top team in this league.
For the second time in the three games, the Giants needed extra time to settle a divisional game.
It took almost all of the overtime period, but the Giants finally got it done.
Washington Capitals prospect Eric Florchuk took the puck in his own zone and effortlessly skated end-to-end to send the Giants home with two points.
Florchuk now has 13 points in nine games since being acquired at the trade deadline earlier this month.
“We got a line change we wanted.” Dyck said as he started to explain how the winning goal transpired.
“Then we were able to get organized and gain some speed off the rush and he (Florchuk) caught someone flat-footed and was able to take advantage of that. He’s got that kind of skill level, he can finish around the net. He made a great play.”
The win puts Vancouver just two points behind Kelowna for third in the division with two games in hand on the Memorial Cup hosts.
With so many divisional games in the second half of the season, stealing points from these teams are huge.
“Whenever you beat a team ahead of you in the standings it’s a great feeling. We feel we can play with anyone in the league.” said Byram post-game.
The Giants have a chance the following night to prove a big win like this wasn’t a fluke as both teams travel up to Kamloops for the second game of the home-and-home.
Byram echoed that message leading into Saturday’s game, “We have to be on our best to beat them and I felt we did that tonight. It’s a huge win but we have to keep going, it cant be a one-and-done.”
