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Stay-Puft
01-25-2006, 10:14 AM
The Vancouver Giants are as good as advertised.

The Tri-City Americans did manage a power-play goal against the top penalty kill team in the Western Hockey League, but not much else, as the Giants walked out of Toyota Center on Tuesday night with a 5-1 victory.

"We got beat by a good hockey team, and we know that," said Americans coach Don Nachbaur. "We need some guys to be better than they were tonight. We created nothing. There were no second efforts."

The Giants (31-12-0-5) had a 5-0 lead and goaltender Dustin Slade was looking for his ninth shutout of the season, but the Americans scored with 14 seconds left as rookie Taylor Procyshen redirected a shot by Matt Swaby in front of the net.

"It was a nice shot. It hit my stick and went in," Procyshen said of his eighth goal of the season. "I thought the first two periods we battled pretty hard, but we fell apart in the third. We weren't as desperate as we should have been."

The Americans (19-20-3-3) are in fourth place in the U.S. Division with 44 points, two back of third-place Seattle and three back of second-place Portland.

"We need to regroup and go to Everett (on Friday) with a mission," Procyshen said.

Vancouver held a 2-0 lead after two periods but came alive in the third with goals by Spencer Machacek, Brett Festerling and Garet Hunt. Festerling and Hunt, who each got their first goals of the season, scored 20 seconds apart.

"I thought the first period was really even and both teams played hard," said Vancouver coach Don Hay. "For us to get that first goal was key. In the third, we worked hard and got some breaks. We pride ourselves on using all our players."

On Machacek's goal, Gilbert Brule found his teammate's stick in traffic and relayed a perfect pass. Festerling's shot from the slot ricocheted in off Price's stick, and Hunt scored off a Tri-City turnover at the left post.

The Americans had a hard time getting their offense to flow in the third and didn't get their first shot on goal until 14:40.

It took Vancouver nearly the entire first period to get to Americans goaltender Carey Price. When Brett Parker thought he had a sure thing on a breakaway at 15:30, Americans defenseman Logan Stephenson chased him down and knocked the puck away.

Jason Reese, a former Tri-City bantam AAA player, finally beat Price at 17:47, going top shelf on the power play to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.

Milan Lucic gave the Giants a 2-0 lead at 4:48 of the second, getting a nice screen by Machacek in front of Price on the power play.

The Americans had two good scoring chances in the first eight minutes of the game against Slade, but Nic Knudsen and Juraj Gracik both rang the puck off the left post.

Price finished with 29 saves as Montreal Canadiens goalie coach Rollie Melanson watched from the stands.