Malc
01-22-2009, 03:24 PM
By Doyle Potenteau
The Vancouver Giants don‘t normally save their best for last. Wednesday night, however, was an exception. Evander Kane had a hat trick and league scoring leader Casey Pierro-Zabotel had a four-point night for Vancouver as the Giants rallied to defeat the Kelowna Rockets 6-4 in WHL action. Trailing 3-2 after two periods, Vancouver lit up the final frame, scoring four times.
"It was a good rally. It was good to see us come back like that because this is a tough building to get a win. It was a hard-effort win," said Pierro-Zabotel, whose team usually builds up early leads, then coasts through the final frame. However, against Kelowna, the new-look Rockets not only pushed their B.C. Division foes, the Giants were actually outmuscled and outplayed for long stretches.
"This is right up there with one of the toughest," Pierro-Zabotel said. "They played us really hard and I give them credit. They played hard, they checked us well, but we just kept battling through the whole game and came out on top."
Pierro-Zabotel, with his 25th goal of the season, Craig Schira and Mike Berube also scored for Vancouver (38-4-0-3). Kane‘s goals were his 28th, 29th and 30th goals of the season. Pierro-Zabotel now has 82 points. Cody Almond, with his 22nd goal, Ian Duval, Evan Bloodoff and Mikael Backlund, with his first WHL marker, replied for the Rockets (26-19-0-1), who lost for the fourth time in five games. Tyson Sexsmith made 20 saves for the Giants, who are now 5-0 this season against Kelowna. At the other end, Mark Guggenberger turned aside 26 shots for the Rockets, who, for the first five minutes, looked like they were going to hand Vancouver a rare loss. Almond opened the scoring just 97 seconds into the game, and the Rockets were all over their opponents. But the Giants weathered the storm, scored at eight minutes, then began pressuring the Rockets in the second. In the final frame, it was all Vancouver, which outshot Kelowna 15-6.
"Vancouver competes for a full 60 (minutes) and we didn‘t do that tonight," said Duval, who scored Kelowna‘s second goal. "We got our feet going, then we had a little lapse in the third. They got two goals and didn‘t look back... It‘s a downer in the room, for sure. We had the game in our grasp and we were playing them the way we wanted to. But we let it slip it away."
Said Almond: "They outworked us in the third; they had a couple of chances and capitalized on them. We just couldn‘t quite bounce back. We have to learn from this, learn how to lock down a lead in the third period, get that killer instinct to finalize the game."
ICE CHIPS: Kelowna‘s scratches were RW Kyle St. Denis (hand, indefinite) and D Kyle Verdino. Vancouver‘s RW Brendan Gallagher, LW J.T. Barnett and D Bronson Maschmeyer... Kelowna was 1-for-4 on the power play; Vancouver was 2-for-6... The three stars were Pierro-Zabotel, Almond and Kane... Attendance was 6,188. Colin Long and Jamie Benn both finished with +/- of -3.
http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/stories_local_sports.php?id=159872
The Vancouver Giants don‘t normally save their best for last. Wednesday night, however, was an exception. Evander Kane had a hat trick and league scoring leader Casey Pierro-Zabotel had a four-point night for Vancouver as the Giants rallied to defeat the Kelowna Rockets 6-4 in WHL action. Trailing 3-2 after two periods, Vancouver lit up the final frame, scoring four times.
"It was a good rally. It was good to see us come back like that because this is a tough building to get a win. It was a hard-effort win," said Pierro-Zabotel, whose team usually builds up early leads, then coasts through the final frame. However, against Kelowna, the new-look Rockets not only pushed their B.C. Division foes, the Giants were actually outmuscled and outplayed for long stretches.
"This is right up there with one of the toughest," Pierro-Zabotel said. "They played us really hard and I give them credit. They played hard, they checked us well, but we just kept battling through the whole game and came out on top."
Pierro-Zabotel, with his 25th goal of the season, Craig Schira and Mike Berube also scored for Vancouver (38-4-0-3). Kane‘s goals were his 28th, 29th and 30th goals of the season. Pierro-Zabotel now has 82 points. Cody Almond, with his 22nd goal, Ian Duval, Evan Bloodoff and Mikael Backlund, with his first WHL marker, replied for the Rockets (26-19-0-1), who lost for the fourth time in five games. Tyson Sexsmith made 20 saves for the Giants, who are now 5-0 this season against Kelowna. At the other end, Mark Guggenberger turned aside 26 shots for the Rockets, who, for the first five minutes, looked like they were going to hand Vancouver a rare loss. Almond opened the scoring just 97 seconds into the game, and the Rockets were all over their opponents. But the Giants weathered the storm, scored at eight minutes, then began pressuring the Rockets in the second. In the final frame, it was all Vancouver, which outshot Kelowna 15-6.
"Vancouver competes for a full 60 (minutes) and we didn‘t do that tonight," said Duval, who scored Kelowna‘s second goal. "We got our feet going, then we had a little lapse in the third. They got two goals and didn‘t look back... It‘s a downer in the room, for sure. We had the game in our grasp and we were playing them the way we wanted to. But we let it slip it away."
Said Almond: "They outworked us in the third; they had a couple of chances and capitalized on them. We just couldn‘t quite bounce back. We have to learn from this, learn how to lock down a lead in the third period, get that killer instinct to finalize the game."
ICE CHIPS: Kelowna‘s scratches were RW Kyle St. Denis (hand, indefinite) and D Kyle Verdino. Vancouver‘s RW Brendan Gallagher, LW J.T. Barnett and D Bronson Maschmeyer... Kelowna was 1-for-4 on the power play; Vancouver was 2-for-6... The three stars were Pierro-Zabotel, Almond and Kane... Attendance was 6,188. Colin Long and Jamie Benn both finished with +/- of -3.
http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/stories_local_sports.php?id=159872