Sep 21, 2007 - Giants 6 Winterhawks 2

[dondo]

from the box score .. have no clue what really happened and the whl box score lacked a bunch of info

Giants School Winterhawks (http://vancouvergiantshq.com/September_21_GiantsbkSchoolbkWinterhawks_140.html)

Giants School Winterhawks
Vancouver 6 Portland 2

Don Robinson - vancouvergiants.com


The Giants exploded in their season opener in Portland tonight powering 6 goals past the Portland netminder. Michal Repik lead the G-Men with three points, scoring two goals with one helper on a goal by Regner on the powerplay. Spencer Machacek and Juraj Valach each notched a goal and an assist in the drubbing. Garet Hunt was back to his old self dropping the gloves early with Ty Ariss, earning the instigator and ten minute misconduct for his trouble. Chris Cloud was involved in some fistcuffs early in the third period, taking on Viktor Sodjin. James Wright rounded out the Giants scoring.

Portland opened the scoring off of a goal by Matt Sokol. The Giants responded tying the game about a minute and half later, when Repik notched his first of the season. Brent Regner added another one on the PP, assisted by Kraus and Repik putting the G-Men up by one at the end of first. The Winterhawks tied the game off of a power-play of their own very early in the second. Tyler Swsytun snuck one past Sexsmith to put the home team back at even. The rest of the game was all Giants though as they cruised to victory scoring four unanswered goals in the second and third periods. Rookies Kane and Manning both found themselves on the score sheet with Kane getting two assists while Manning tallying one helper.

Hunt, Machacek and Blum wore the "A's" while Captain Milan Lucic remains in Boston playing for the Bruins during preseason and could possibly see some time in the regualr season before returning to the Giants. The word on the street is that Lucic will be back for the Giants home opener, but no real confirmation of that has come down the pipe.

The Giants went 2 for 4 on the PP, while the Winterhawks managed just one goal on their eight opportunities with the man-advantage.

Three Stars

Michal Repik
Spencer Machacek
Tyler Swystun

[Soundy]

Thanks for that, dondo! Nice to have your wrap-ups back for another season :) I was working until 9:30 last night so I completely missed anything about the game.

[Swando]

I watched it on the web with a poor quality audio feed. My take was that it was a pretty sloppy played game ( just commenting on the Giants). They dominated in the chance attempts and their give aways etc allowed the Hawks to get chances. Eg: Uncharacteristically Blum coughed up the puck on the easy forecheck for The Winterhawks first goal. Valech looks big and skinny and was caught out of position several times....against a better team it would cost him. Berube looks much better than a Flatters as he is able to avoid the forecheck with a nice move or too which is encouraging. The best D man I thot was Regner as he was teamed with Blum...I'm sure they will get the bulk of PP time. Repik was a man amongst boys at times when he hung onto the puck..he scored 2 but could have had 3 or four if not for Mucha.
Kraus seemed to have a bee in his bonnet for tring to be "tough". Took 4 penalties and not good ones at that. Machachek was outstanding on the PK and missed to breakaway attempts on the PK. Can't really comment on Cloud other than he had a nice scrap and showed his toughness. Hunt hammered his opponent in the 1st which drew a instigator and 10...he stood up for a checking from behind on Cunningham. Speaking of Cunningham, he was knocked down all night it seemed...I was hoping he'd get some size and muscle over the summer but Hay seems to like him. Toigo played sparingly and Manning was paired with Valech (sp) for most of the night .
It's a different team from last year for sure as there is more grit and less natural talent. Facing the Portland team was an easy task last night imo and tonight tilt against Everett will show us a bit more of what we have.

[Beaner]

Ty Ariss from Portland who hit Cunningham from behind got a 1 game suspension as per the WHL site.

http://whl.ca/hm/suspensions.php?id=3425

[dondo]

thanks swando -- Valach was a +3 on the night and Blummy a -1 .. what the.. :skeptical

[Kassian]

Hunt hammered his opponent in the 1st which drew a instigator and 10...he stood up for a checking from behind on Cunningham.

Actually Hunt was standing up for himself. Hunt was the one checked from behind by Ariss. Once he got up off the ice he was already throwing punches at Ariss.