Jan 21, 2009 Giants 6 Rockets 4

[dondo]

I'm out of town right now, but I caught the third period on the 'net .. the one really good thing about being two hours ahead, connection drifting in and out a bit, but I don't think I could have caught a better period for the Giants (perhaps it was my tuning in which gave them that extra incentive ;) ). Great come-back -- the boys just put everything into that period, driving the net and willing their shots past Guggenberger. I still think that the Rockets have a big weakness between the pipes. Nice to hear boys like Fisenko driving guys like Grantham into the boards with clean shoulder checks too.

here's how I heard it, read it:


Giants Burn Rockets
Vancouver 6 Kelowna 4

Don Robinson

Casey Pierro-Zabotel had four points (1G 3A) Wednesday night versus the Rockets as the Giants came from behind 3-2 in the third to get the victory over the newly tooled Rocket squad. Evander Kane with his own four point night (3G 1A) got the hat trick with a late empty net goal to secure the victory in the last minute of play. The Rockets newly acquired Swedish sniper Mikael Backlund scored his first goal in the WHL and added two helpers in the loss. Cody Almond was all over the ice for the Rockets, scoring the opening goal and adding an assist later in the game.

It was one of those Giants/Rockets games where the momentum swung back and forth and neither team was really ready to give an inch. The Giants push in the third was the difference as the G-Men rebounded from a bit of a soft second to really bring the heat in the third, peppering Mark Guggenberger with 15 shots in the final frame, putting three behind the netminder in the process. Despite allowing 4 goals against on only 24 shots, Tyson Sexsmith had to be good on the night to keep his team within striking distance.

The Giants went 2 for 6 on the PP, while the Rockets were 1 for 4, scoring a late third period PP tally to make it close. The Giants out shot the home team 32-24. Next for the G-Men is a couple of games at home versus the Kamloops Blazers on Friday and the Everett Silvertips on Saturday. The Giants will once again be sporting their Vancouver Millionaires unis on Saturday in front of at least 10,000 fans and possibly more as tickets sales are brisk. The puck drops on Friday as it usually does at 7:30pm at the Coliseum.

Three Stars

1) Casey Pierro-Zabotel
2) Cody Almond
3) Evander Kane

[Rockets1231]

The Giants won yes, but let's call a spade a spade. The Giants were outplayed 80% of the game by Kelowna and if not for some 'marginal' calls by the officials Vancouver would have been lucky to escape with a point, much less a win. The Giants forth goal came directly from a blatant non-call in the corner when, I believe it was, Almond was hauled down while skating out of the Rockets zone. The puck went to Berube who passed it to Cunningham who fired it into the back of the net. Early in the 3rd Duval was called for an apparent trip when really all that happened was the players got tangled up behind the Vancouver net. The Rockets killed off the powerplay, but the momentum was clearly on the Giants side. That being said Vancouver is the best team in the WHL and probably the CHL and those 2 points won't matter in the B.C. Division standings, but Kelowna and Seattle are battling for 3rd in the West right now and 2 points could be huge. Like I said Vancouver has a great team, but on this night they weren't the better team...

[sman111]

Wow and Giants fans always take crap for whinning about the reffing. There were marginal calls both ways that non call on Kane may or may not of been a penalty (couldn't really see with the angle on tv) but right after that the Rockets got an even up call on a very suspect tripping call on Schira, so whatever it goes both ways. Its hardly the Giants fault that the Big oaf Myers shoots the puck over the glass. If you don't play a full 60 min against a good team let alone one of the best teams then your not going to win and thats what happened, so don't say the Rockets were the better team cause they clearly weren't.

[Rockets1231]

Kelowna held the play most of the game except for about 5 minutes in the 3rd. Now obviously against Vancouver you have to play 60 minutes, but for most of the game Kelowna was the better team, because when it comes down to it the Giants played abut 10 minutes of good hockey and ended up winning, they are that good. I just thought Kelowna played well against a great team, and at least deserved a point out of it.

[dondo]

R1231:

Giants @ Rockets Jan 21 (http://whl.ca/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=1005767)

Looking at the stats and the kinds of penalties the Rockets were tagged for I'm not sure how you can blame the refs in this situation. You had two delay of game penalties to put the Giants on 5 on 3's on two separate occasions.

PP chances were 6-4 in favour of the Giants, take away those two delay.o.g penalties and its 4 to 4. Your penalties also tended to be lazy tripping, holding the stick type of penalties. PPs seemed pretty balanced for both squads, by my reckoning.

Gawd knows I hate a great deal of the reffing in the dub, but from what I have heard from other fans from both Kelowna and Vancouver that the game was really tightly played and decently officiated.

Giants out shot the Rockets in the first and third. Looks like the Rockets had a great second period, but as far as 80% of the game, that's pretty damn bogus looking at the numbers. From the sounds of it during the game call Schira's late tripping penalty against was bit soft as well.

Also we had one PP goal in the third, out of 4 goals scored. From what I listened to in the third period the Giants dominated the period from the drop of the puck. Down by one goal coming into the final frame the Giants scored three before the Rockets came back on their late PP.