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Kassian
02-13-2005, 06:58 PM
Two timely goals by Tim Kraus (left) in the third period gave the Vancouver Giants a chance to win in Spokane on Saturday. Despite the thrilling comeback, the Chiefs scored midway through overtime frame and the road-weary club lost 4-3. Heading home after posting a satisfactory 1-3-1-1 record in six games traveling through Alberta, Southwestern Saskatchewan and Eastern Washington, the G-Men hit the 60-point plateau on the season with their single point in Spokane. Vancouver is now 27-24-3-3 and third in the BC Division with 15 games left in the regular season.

The Giants fell behind 2-0 in a span of 15 seconds during the first period when Spokane's Chad Klassen scored on a powerplay at 7:11 before Kyle Howarth struck at 7:26. Vancouver netminder Marek Schwarz only let one more goal in during regulation time – Danny LaPointe scored a PP marker at 5:32 of the middle frame – and stopped 32 of the 36 shots he saw in the contest. Former Giants' defenseman Joe Logan netted the game-winner at 3:44 of the extra session, a brief 4-on-4 OT that featured a fine Schwarz save on a penalty shot. With 1:16 gone in overtime, Ned Lukacevic was awarded the freebie, but Schwarz kept his team alive, albeit on life support as it turned out.

Veteran blueliner Conlan Seder scored his third goal in two games with just 1.4 seconds to go in the opening period to get the G-Men on the board. Kraus sparked the third period comeback, scoring on a harmless looking wrist shot at 2:23 and then tied the game on a powerplay at 9:54.

The Giants were playing minus some key ingredients against the Chiefs, as star forward Gilbert Brule, scorer Matt Robinson and grinder Kyle Lamb were suffering from the flu. Illness and fatigue has set in on a team that has been away from home for two weeks, the longest road trip in franchise history.

The three games Vancouver lost on their prolonged journey were by just one goal, meaning they were able to hang with some of the best teams in the Western Hockey League. In fact, since a 3-1 win over Tri-City on January 28th , the Giants have dropped nail-biters to Kelowna , Red Deer , Medicine Hat and Calgary . They took out Swift Current 6-2 after going into the third period of that game tied 2-2 and came back against a strong Lethbridge team to earn a tie after being down 2-0. The gutsy effort against the Chiefs is another rung up the ladder the Giants are attempting to climb as a team heading into the stretch drive to the playoffs.

“The hockey world judges you on wins and losses, but I think it's also the process you have to go through,” Head Coach Don Hay said. “We're seeing good signs – we're not getting good results. We're working our way through it. I think that we're a more competitive team every night than we were at the start of the year. We're working harder and working together, which is also a very positive sign. We have to get everybody playing well at the same time, that's most important and that's our goal in the next month.”

The Giants host Red Deer on Wednesday, kicking off a stretch through the remainder of February with four of their next six games on home ice. A home-and-home set with the Kamloops Blazers, at the Pacific Coliseum on Friday and at Sport Mart Place on Saturday, is on tap for next weekend.

Kassian
02-13-2005, 07:01 PM
What a surprise. The Giants lose to a team they should beat once again. I hope a lot of people don't bother buying playoff tickets. This team will be knocked out in the first round no doubt unless something short of a mircale happens.

This was their last opportunity to learn how to win a few games on the road. They failed. :burningma