Hello everyone, I apologize for missing last week but we’re back and with things to talk about!
THE STREAK…
The Giants’ impressive winning streak came to an end at 11 games (tying a franchise record) at the hands of the Everett Silvertips this past Saturday.
It’s never an easy feat leaving the Angel of the Winds Arena with two points, with Vancouver being 1-6-0-0 in their last seven trips to Everett.
In the last five years of meetings?
The Silvertips have been dominant, going 13-1-1-0 in the 15 games between the two teams.
Granted, the Giants had some bad teams during those years while Everett seems to always sport a contender.
Some positives did come out of the 2-1 loss…..
On the team side of things, the Giants scored a power-play goal in every game of the streak except one and scored multiple on six occasions.
Thanks to those stats, the Giants now-impressive power play is ranked 11th in the WHL.
That aspect didn’t change down in Everett as Vancouver’s lone goal came on the man-advantage courtesy of Milos Roman.
Also, Vancouver’s ninth-ranked penalty kill held the league’s best power play to one goal on four chances in the game, though the one goal ended up being the game-winner.
The Giants’ special teams have clawed the sub-.500 team from the first half of the season, up towards more of people’s expectations or predictions before the season began.
Almost certainly, the Giants will be the third BC Division team to clinch a spot in the 2020 WHL Playoffs behind Kamloops and Victoria.
Not quite the order almost all of us had predicted…
ALMOST AT THE “X”…
As this is being written on Wednesday, Vancouver can clinch as early as tonight should Prince George fail to register a point against the Memorial Cup host Kelowna Rockets.
The team will surely have a ticket booked to the postseason by this weekend’s end, a weekend that sees them play three games in three nights — all against Victoria.
Victoria currently sits second in the BC Division with a 30-21-5-2 record (67 points) in 58 games while the Giants have an almost identical record of 30-21-3-2 (65 points) in 56 games.
UPCOMING ‘ROYAL’ WEEKEND…
As just previously mentioned, Vancouver will be seeing a lot of one of their biggest rivals this upcoming weekend.
It all starts Friday at the Langley Events Centre for the teams’ eighth meeting of the season (Vancouver is 4-3-0-0 in the season series) before the mini-series shifts to the province’s capital on Saturday and Sunday.
For obvious reasons, this may be Vancouver’s most important weekend of hockey of the 2019-20 regular season.
These games will more or less be the deciding factor for who will grab second and third place in the BC Division — home ice in the first round.
Second and third place in the division meet up in the opening round of the playoffs, which would make it the third consecutive year these two teams met (2018 first-round – VIC in seven games, 2019 second-round – VAN in four straight).
Vancouver has won the past three meetings, and convincingly.
4-1, 5-2, and 6-2 are the scores you will find in those games, a nice change for Giants fans as Victoria has always seemed to their number year in and year out.
Fully expect a playoff-like atmosphere during this trio of games.
WE’RE GOING STREAKING…
Though the team’s streak has ended, there are still some individual streaks to keep an eye on as the season progresses…
Eric Florchuk – 13 games – 22 points (5G, 17A) *longest streak this season is 18 games from Spokane’s Adam Beckman*
Bowen Byram – 11 games – 22 points (7G, 15A)
Milos Roman – five games – eight points (5G, 3A)
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS…
One major highlight I have failed to mention is the 6-5 come-from-behind win over the Calgary Hitmen this past Friday that extended the winning streak to 11 games…
That may have been the ‘Game of the Year’ to this point in the season.
Long story short, the Giants came out in the third period down 5-2 and walked out of the LEC with a 6-5 win — in regulation, no less.
Justin Sourdif had a hat trick, with his third being the game-winner off this bar-down snipeeeee…..
What game we have here tonight!! #2020NHLDraft prospect Justin Sourdif caps off the hat trick and gives the @WHLGiants their fourth unanswered goal to make it 6-5 #WHL pic.twitter.com/K4RqGcjNKl
— Stephen Hawco (@stephenhawco7) February 22, 2020
It seemed a big part of the tides changing in Vancouver’s favour was this goal from Bowen Byram that kicked off the third-period scoring.
#GoAvsGo prospect Bowen Byram sneaks in a cheeky one from a tough angle to cut the Hitmen's lead to two. #WHL pic.twitter.com/K14ULi8U8T
— Stephen Hawco (@stephenhawco7) February 22, 2020
…such an impressive shot from the star defenceman.
You can see me next on Friday with my recap of Friday’s playoff-esque game against Victoria.
Stay tuned for more from DUBNetwork…
