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View Full Version : Giants Register 30th Win Of Year vs Ams



Kassian
02-24-2005, 11:19 AM
The Vancouver Giants won every battle on Wednesday and edged the Tri-City Americans 2-1 at the Pacific Coliseum. Timely goals by hard-working forwards fuelled the G-Men, giving the club its 30 th win of the season and third consecutive victory.

After a scoreless first period, Cam Cunning (left) found net at 4:23 of the middle frame. Probably the best player on either side tonight, Cunning flip-flopped lines for a time with Mitch Bartley, who scored the game-winner at 7:58 of the third period.

“The last seven or eight minutes of the second, that line really got us going on the cycle, generated some scoring chances and also generated some powerplay opportunities,” said Head Coach Don Hay, who mixed up his offensive units to keep the Giants firing on all cylinders. “All of our forwards worked really well down low tonight.”

Bartley normally skates with Gilbert Brule and Tim Kraus, the duo that assisted on his game-winning goal, while Cunning has been flanking Ryan Costanzo alongside J.D. Watt. Cunning's goal, his 16 th of the season, was just his second as a Giant and first tally since January 14 th , a few days after he was acquired from Kamloops at the Western Hockey League trading deadline.

“He's been playing OK – he just hasn't been finding ways to get points,” Hay said of the always hard-working Cunning. “I thought he was our top player tonight. He was all over the ice and making hits and obviously the goal was big for us, being the first of the game, but he had a great chance in the first period. That line – the Costanzo-Watt-Cunning line was very good for us.”

Vancouver goalie Marek Schwarz was impressive, making 18 saves on 19 shots. He surrendered a goal to Tri-City's Jason Beeman at 6:28 of the second period, but stopped a barrage of chances, especially when the Ams had Carey Price pulled for an extra attacker while also on the powerplay in the last minute or so of regulation time. The Giants rang up 31 shots at Price and one more when an Americans' defender made a save in front of the empty net.

“We were pretty solid and we had better opportunities,” Hay surmised. “We seemed to score at the right time and we did a good job shutting them down. Giving up only 19 shots, you're going to give yourself a chance to win and I thought we competed hard in all positions.”

Cunning didn't exactly have a grand piano on his back, going 16 games between goals, but maybe a small Casio keyboard was weighing on his mind after being brought into the Giants' fold not only to work hard, but to produce offensively to some degree.

“It felt good to finally put one in there, so hopefully if I can just keep doing it I'll get a little confidence and keep rolling here,” said the Calgary Flames 8 th Round draft pick from 2003.

Cunning even wore the seldom-seen grey hard hat presented to the Giants' hardest worker, for his post-game interviews.

“I haven't got it for a few weeks, so the guys made me wear it out here,” the burly 19-year-old chuckled, despite surviving a vicious cross-check to the head in the win. “You've just got to battle through that stuff. If he's (the referee) not going to call it, you can't get down – you just have to keep going out and working hard.”

Ideally the Giants keep up the good work and bring their collective hard hats to the Coliseum on Friday when they play host to BC Division rival Kelowna . The team then cruises down I-5 for a date with the Everett Silvertips on Saturday night.