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Kassian
03-13-2005, 03:31 AM
From: http://www.vancouvergiants.com

The Vancouver Giants have to hope their effort in Prince George on Saturday was an exception and not the rule as they get set to enter the final week of the regular season. They were never in the game and down early in a 4-0 loss to the Cougars.

Blair Stengler scored the game-winner at 7:49 of the opening stanza, converting after stealing an errant pass in the neutral zone. Other Cougars' marksmen included Eric Hunter and Colin Patterson, who had a pair of first period goals. Patterson beat Giants' goalie Adam Jennings (left) during a 5-on-3 powerplay at 11:34 of the first and then later at 17:24. Hunter put the contest even further out of reach at 6:20 of the middle frame, a period in which the Cats fired 18 of their 37 shots at Jennings .

“It wasn't a great game, there's no doubt about it,” Assistant Coach/Assistant GM Craig Bonner admitted. “From our goalie out, I thought we really battled the puck. Adam battled it in the nets and the ‘D' and the forwards, it seemed like the puck was bouncing around all night. You've got to give Prince George credit. They're a real desperate hockey team and they came out and wanted to win more than we did.”

Scott Bowles stopped all 31 Vancouver shots, earning his first goose egg for PG since coming over in a deadline day trade from the Calgary Hitmen. It couldn't have come at a better time because the Cougars still trail Kamloops by five points in the race for the final playoff spot in the BC Division.

“They blocked shots – they did the little things that you need to do to win hockey games,” Bonner said of the Cats. “In some ways we played like a team that was content to win one game up here and we all know how hard it is to win two up here. It's a tough part of the schedule for us right now as we're playing for points in the conference but other than that we're not going anywhere in the standings. It's a challenge to try and keep the guys going every night.”

J.D. Watt played a spirited game for the Giants and was in the middle of things during a third period dust-up that saw PG defender Matej Trojovsky ejected for sucker-punching Vancouver 's sparkplug. Gilbert Brule also fought Cougars' 20-year-old Lee Zalasky during the same stoppage and Watt was later assessed a double minor and ten-minute misconduct that sent him to the showers a little early.

The Giants record stands at 32-29-4-4, one win shy of a franchise high total that the club posted last year. Marek Schwarz had the night off after setting a single-season team record with his 24 th victory on Friday – a 6-3 Vancouver decision over the Cougars.

PG visits the Pacific Coliseum on Tuesday, before the Giants end their 2004/05 campaign with a home-and-home set against the Kelowna Rockets next Friday and Saturday.

Beaner
03-14-2005, 01:19 AM
The title of that article should have been,

Giants take night off, again. :burningma

Kassian
03-14-2005, 02:38 AM
The title of that article should have been,

Giants take night off, again. :burningma

I agree. But unfortunately since it is coming from the Giants site I'm just using that they said. Doesn't mean I have to agree with it. :burningma

Sput
03-14-2005, 12:03 PM
To give the Giants some credit, I'm not sure that they took the night off so much, I saw it more that the Cougars actually came to play Saturday. The Giants did get some decent pressure, but the way the defense was clamped down they just couldn't get anything through to the net. The Cougs played the way the can, and have to, to win and simply took the Giants off their game plan.

C.F
03-14-2005, 06:55 PM
To give the Giants some credit, I'm not sure that they took the night off so much, I saw it more that the Cougars actually came to play Saturday. The Giants did get some decent pressure, but the way the defense was clamped down they just couldn't get anything through to the net. The Cougs played the way the can, and have to, to win and simply took the Giants off their game plan.
At this point in the year, the Giants have to beat teams like the Cougars. Not to take anything away from the Cougs, i'm sure they played great, but the if the Giants can't sweep a 2 game series with a team like the Cougs, how will they win a 7 game series with the 2nd best team in the dub?

Knuckles Muldoon
03-14-2005, 08:04 PM
The Giants took the night off. But then they've taken a lot of nights off this season. :(

Kassian
03-14-2005, 11:01 PM
At this point in the year, the Giants have to beat teams like the Cougars. Not to take anything away from the Cougs, i'm sure they played great, but the if the Giants can't sweep a 2 game series with a team like the Cougs, how will they win a 7 game series with the 2nd best team in the dub?

Exactly. That is ultimately what it boils down to.