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View Full Version : Giants Finish Season In Style Saturday



Kassian
03-20-2005, 02:54 AM
From: http://www.vancouvergiants.com

The Vancouver Giants chose an ideal time to beat season-long nemesis Kelowna , dusting the Rockets 5-1 on Saturday at the Pacific Coliseum in front of a franchise record 12,778 fans. It was the final game of the regular schedule and set up a first round playoff pairing with the defending Memorial Cup champions. Based on Kootenay's win over Spokane tonight, the Ice finished first in the BC Division, placing the Rockets second and pitting them against the G-Men starting next weekend.

Vancouver spotted Kelowna a late first period lead, but stormed back with five unanswered goals, including three on the powerplay, an area the club vowed would improve heading into the post-season. Andrej Meszaros, presented pre-game awards as top defenseman and rookie of the year for the Giants, scored a powerplay marker just 16 seconds into the second period before Chad Scharff potted the eventual game-winner at 6:18 . The Giants broke the contest wide open in the final frame when Adam Courchaine scored on a 2-man advantage at 1:05 . Gilbert Brule went to work netting two consecutive goals, his 38 th of the season on a 5-on-3 PP at 15:06 and then 50 seconds later he nabbed his 39 th on a fantastic rush that culminated with a beautiful backhand flip past Rockets' goalie Derek Yeomans.

Giants' netminder Marek Schwarz was superb in the win, his 26 th which is a single season club record. The skinny Czech made 24 saves, allowing just Tyler Spurgeon to score at 18:52 of the first period. Vancouver sent 26 shots the way of Yeomans, who cracked ever so slightly after Kelowna got into penalty trouble at the midway point of the third.

“I thought we worked hard,” a satisfied Giants' Head Coach, Don Hay, said. “We battled all year to put ourselves in this situation and all the games have been really close. It was good to see a real, solid 60-minute effort tonight and that's what you need to have success against Kelowna . You have to be prepared to play hard for 60 minutes because if you rest at all when you're on the ice, they really can take advantage of it. If you can work and compete, battle and play physical you can have success.”

So few goals, often scored late in games and even overtime, separated Kelowna from the Giants in seven other meetings. Other than a 5-3 loss to the Rockets back on January 8, the victory on Saturday was the widest margin of victory for either team this year. Now it's Vancouver with the momentum at this critical juncture in their season series.

“When you play hard against them and you play a solid game, that's how you gain confidence,” Hay said. “You need everyone playing well and we just had a great, total team effort. Everybody was working on all cylinders tonight and that's what it really takes.”

The game was bittersweet for three Giants, namely 20-year-old veterans Triston Grant , Conlan Seder and Courchaine. Playing his last game no differently than any of his previous contests over the past four seasons, Courchaine led by example and struck for a goal and two assists. Grant, also a four-year warrior for the G-Men would love to have converted at least one of his few scoring chances, but beat up Kelowna's Gary Sylvester in the last minute to keep his respected reputation around the Western League fully intact. Seder, in search of his milestone 100 th point for the past while, finally got it in his swan song, when he helped Courchaine set up the goal that decided the game.

“We had a little group talk before we got dressed and just talked about me and Adam and Seder's last regular season game,” Grant said. “All the guys, I thought everybody, put in a little extra effort for us and made sure our last regular season game was a good one.”

The three, with help from blueline monsters Meszaros and Mark Fistric, not too mention Brule who went off for two goals and two assists, now get set to lead the Giants into a much-anticipated first round playoff meeting with the Rockets. The series, the teams' second such meeting in the past three years, gets going next Friday and Saturday in Kelowna . Games three and four are scheduled for the Coliseum on March 29 and 30.