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View Full Version : Giants Fall In O.T. To Silvertips Saturday



Kassian
02-27-2005, 03:51 AM
It was a good news/bad news kind of night for the Vancouver Giants, who earned a point on Saturday even though they dropped a 4-3 decision to the Everett Silvertips in overtime. Coming back from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits, the Giants tied the game twice before the Tips won it with 19 seconds left in the extra session. After the game the G-Men also learned they had officially clinched a playoff spot in the BC Division because the Prince George Cougars lost to the Kamloops Blazers.

17-year-old rookie Jason Reese (classified as a 16-year-old) notched his first multi-goal game in the Western Hockey League, sandwiching his third and fourth goals of the season around Adam Courchaine's 25th halfway through the third period. Reese broke into Everett 's zone while skating four-on-four, picked up his own rebound and then snuck in a wrap-around at 7:38 of the second. He later sent the match into extra time when Courchaine and Paul Albers set up the Gresham , OR native at 18:13 of the final stanza.

Everett scored once in each period, including late in OT, on Vancouver 's Adam Jennings, who made 23 saves. Torrie Wheat gave the Silvertips a 1-0 lead at 3:29 of the opening frame, before Kyle Annesley netted a powerplay marker at 3:48 of the second. Shaun Heska put the Tips up 3-2 at 14:45 of the third period and Brady Calla won it at 4:41 of OT.

“For 60 minutes of the hockey game we played pretty hard,” said Giants' Assistant Coach Craig Bonner, whose team was out-shot 7-2 in OT. “What kind of hurt us is when we got going really good we would take a penalty which killed our momentum at times. To come back and get that point is huge, obviously, and it's a good character thing for us.”

Vancouver sent 28 shots at Everett goalie Leland Irving and played from behind virtually from the start. They led the shot parade 18-10 after two periods and never gave up despite some hard luck in the offensive zone. Even star sniper Gilbert Brule missed an empty net opportunity that could have changed the outcome of the contest.

“Tonight we had a ton of chances,” Bonner said. “It was one of those nights. In the first, on the powerplay, we had four or five real quality chances and didn't bury them. But we stuck with the program and we could have easily shut it down when they went up in the third 3-2.”

Reese has been healthy scratch more often than not lately, but broke out and doubled his goals total with a fine outing. It's always tough to perform on the road in the WHL and the Everett Events Center is no exception where a raucous partisan crowd loyally supports the hometown Tips.

“The positive thing with him is he hasn't played the last few games, mainly because of numbers, but also because he hasn't been performing,” Bonner explained regarding Reese. “We haven't seen the fire, the intensity that we like to see and tonight we saw it. It was a great effort by him to get two goals in Everett 's rink as a 16-year-old – good for him.”

With a playoff spot nailed down and nine games to go, Vancouver has officially entered the stretch run and the March portion of their regular season schedule. The Giants head to Seattle for a road tilt on Wednesday then embark on a three-game weekend. Portland and Kelowna visit the Pacific Coliseum on Friday and Saturday, before the G-Men play in Kamloops next Sunday.

Jimmy
02-28-2005, 05:43 PM
I'm still trying to find a clip of that Meszaros hit.
With the way they were playing it up on the radio, it sounded like the hit of the year.